Legacy of the Planet
by Zaion Indulias
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto has a secret. One from a world long since dead. One that he will work to hide behind a facade of pranks, brashness, and idiocy. One that will change the face of his Planet forever. Pairings to be decided later.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Naruto and Final Fantasy are the property of their respective owners. I own nothing but my original ideas.

* * *

Chapter 1: Light of a Distant Sky

A flash of light in the darkness of space was all that was present to harken the arrival of a sleek black figure.

Like a predator the black metal vessel glided silently through the void, slowly dropping into orbit of a nondescript blue-green world in a distant arm of a spiral galaxy.

Tiny flashes of light announced the activation of small thrusters, correcting the trajectory and speed of the object so that it could slot into a stable orbit.

Slowly, it's descent towards the planet slowed, until the object was in a perfect geosynchronous orbit.

After several long minutes several cylindrical ports around the object irised open. From the ports facing the planet several metal rods extended before fanning open to reveal satellite dishes, pointed down towards the planet.

From ports along the sides of the object several smaller objects, like miniature versions of the original, were ejected into space. Propelled by small thrusters, the objects began to spread into an orbital pattern, forming a network surrounding the small unassuming planet.

After several hours, when the deployed probes had reached their assigned positions and completed the orbital network, a protocol inside the main vessel activated.

A final panel irised open, and twenty small tapered cylindrical objects, about three feet in diameter and about eight feet long, dropped out of the vessel, descending towards the planet below.

The people of the world below bore witness that night as a small but spectacular meteor shower lit up the night sky.

As each of the cylinders dropped through the atmosphere, the outer coating became ignited by the fire, and was burned away. Finally, the surviving pieces of it exploded away, and a small spherical object inside each projectile flew away under its own power, free of flames.

Silently, twenty orbs shimmered and disappeared from view, heading towards the major population centers on the planet.

The search for a candidate had begun.

* * *

**Two Months Later**

Six year old Uzumaki Naruto was excited. Today was the day he was to start at the Academy. The day he would finally get to be trained as a ninja.

Currently he was sprinting as fast as his short six year old legs could carry him, dodging amongst the towering figures of adults on one of Konoha's busiest thoroughfares. He would normally have taken an alleyway or side street in order to avoid the glares, hateful stares, and occasional thrown rock or rotten vegetable, but today was special, and he didn't want to be late.

And if he didn't pick up the pace that was precisely what he was going to be.

Rounding a corner Naruto had to leap into the air to avoid colliding with a pair of kids his own age who were walking through the arched gates that lead to the Konoha Ninja Academy.

Naruto, underestimating his own strength, flew further than he had intended, hitting the ground and rolling to the stop at the feet of a pretty girl his own age with pink hair.

Naruto blinked up at the surprised girl for a moment before grinning.

"Whoa. You're pretty."

Any response the blushing girl may have made was immediately forestalled as her mother moved to kick the blond boy, who quickly rolled out of the way and hopped to his feet, sprinting into the Academy, and any memory of the incident entered the back of her mind as Uchiha Sasuke, the super-cool Uchiha heir entered through the gates, escorted by an ANBU.

Naruto found his classroom after seven tries. The hyperactive blond was just too excited to remember his assigned room number, so he had crashed six classes of various age levels before he finally found his. Thus, by the time he arrived, he was the last remaining student to arrive.

There was an austere looking woman wearing a Chunin vest standing behind the desk in the front of the classroom, and she shot Naruto a withering look as he bent over to catch his breath briefly.

After a moment, Naruto stood, his massive grin returning to his face, before he burst out loudly. "Hey!! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm going to be the Hokage someday!! Dattebayo!!"

Most of the students either snickered or glared at Naruto at his noisy entrance. A trio of dark haired boys in the front of the classroom were whispering conspiratorially, though Naruto didn't see this. The instructor's glare merely darkened.

_Why the hell do I have to teach the demon brat? He took my parents and brother from me._ The woman thought to herself. Well, if she had to teach the demon brat, she certainly wouldn't teach him well. Maybe if he was failing the brat would give up and leave the Academy.

"Naruto." The woman said coldly, barely getting the name of the demon brat out between her clenched teeth. "Take your seat immediately."

Naruto blinked and had the good manners to blush slightly in embarrassment before making a beeline towards an empty seat in the back of the room.

The teacher, who had introduced herself before the blond arrived and refused to repeat her introduction for the likes of the _demon_, had the students introduce themselves, but when she skipped calling Naruto's name he just shrugged. He had long since learned that when people disliked him he was better off ignoring them unless it really mattered.

Once the introductions were done the woman began with a lecture on history. Naruto immediately found his eyes beginning to droop. He was an extremely active kid, and sitting in a warm classroom listening to a woman who seemed to not want him there drone on about events that happened centuries before was anathema to him.

Before he knew it, Uzumaki Naruto's head had dropped to his desk and he was snoring lightly and drooling on the desk. Around the class numerous people snickered at the loud hyperactive blond. In the front of the class their Chunin instructor narrowed her eyes. If it had been any other student sleeping in her class, she'd have woken him up with a shout. But it was the demon brat. Good. The more he slept, the less he learned, and the more likely he would fail.

As she continued her lecture on the wars between the shinobi clans before the formation of the hidden villages the Chunin woman allowed herself to display a slight smirk.

Naruto ended up spending most of the rest of class off and on asleep, waking up periodically, only to fall back asleep when he realized it was still just boring old history. When he finally did wake up fully, he was in time to catch the one lecture of the day that actually caught his attention.

"Deception is the most powerful tool in a shinobi's arsenal." The angry Chunin lady, whose name Naruto had learned was Akane Kawamoto spoke.

Naruto's ears immediately perked up, as the subject actually appeared relevant to being a shinobi.

Akane smirked slightly to herself as she saw the demon brat was awake and paying attention. Suddenly a light bulb lit up in her head. This was a perfect chance to embarrass the demon, and to make him look like an idiot to the rest of his peers.

"Naruto. Could you please tell the entire class why this is so?" She said, using all her control to keep her smile off of her face.

Naruto blinked and stared down at Akane in confusion. The angry Chunin lady wanted HIM to answer the question? But how was he supposed to know the answer. She had only just started to lecture on the topic, and he'd never had anyone to teach him any of this stuff before. Well, when in doubt…

"Um, I dunno. Is deception something good to eat?" Naruto replied, scratching the back of his head.

The entire class broke out laughing at his expense as Akane glared at him.

"I would appreciate it if you keep your foolish jokes to yourself Naruto." She snarled, causing Naruto to color and shrink back into his chair.

Outwardly Naruto appeared simply embarrassed, but inside he was hurt, angry. Why didn't anyone give him a chance? Why did they always treat him with disdain?

_I mean, Jiji isn't like that, and neither is that strange ANBU, Serpent, nor Ji-san Ichiraku and Ne-san Ayame. But everyone else just treats me like I'm scum! What have I ever done to deserve it?!_

At the front of the class, Akane took a deep breath before continuing.

"Deception is a ninja's life blood. Even in a heated battle, a tiny deception can make the difference between victory and defeat." Akane said, looking around the room. She was pleased to note that most of the students were paying attention, and that the damn demon seemed to just be sulking and not paying attention.

"One of the first rules of being a shinobi is to see 'beneath the underneath.' This means to look past the façade your opponents put forth, and instead see what they don't want you to see. This means their weaknesses, their fears, and their desires. However, if your opponent can lure you into seeing exactly what you expect, your guard will be lowered, and you may not think to look 'beneath the underneath.' The number one rule for a ninja is simple: Never let your guard down; never let your opponent deceive you. Do that, and you will go far as shinobi."

In the back of the room, contrary to what she had thought, Uzumaki Naruto was most certainly listening, although he filed the lesson away to review later. He did this not because he was depressed, annoyed, or even angry.

No, Uzumaki Naruto did this because at that precise moment his stomach chose to grumble loudly.

Uzumaki Naruto was hungry for ramen.

* * *

When class finally ended Naruto sped from the room so fast he left a vacuum in his wake. As he rushed off towards Ichiraku Ramen, the hyperactive blond failed to notice the three brown-haired boys who followed much more sedately in his wake, matching evil grins on their faces.

* * *

"MMMM. That was great. Another miso ramen Ji-san." Naruto cried out as he slammed his bowl down on the counter, adding it to the stack of ten bowls already there.

Behind the counter the kindly old man, Teuchi Ichiraku, who ran the ramen shop smiled and began serving another bowl of ramen for the excitable blond. At the other end of the counter Teuchi's daughter Ayame smiled at the young boy. He was always such a joy to have around, as he positively thrived off of her father's ramen. She couldn't understand why so many of the villagers seemed to dislike the child.

"Well look at this, guys. It's the dobe. Thinking he can eat here like a normal person." A young male's voice came from behind Naruto.

All three occupants of the small ramen shop turned to find three smirking brown-haired boys about Naruto's age standing there, their expressions a mixture between smirks and glares at Naruto.

"But he's not a normal person. My father told me he's a demon in human form, and that we should treat him like we would treat any other demon." The ringleader glared at Naruto.

Naruto's eyes widened. He recognized that look. It was the look the stupid villagers sent him on his birthday every year, right before they tried to beat him.

Without waiting for his last bowl of ramen, Naruto dropped some money on the counter and leapt off of his stool. He sprinted off down the street before turning and shooting off down an alley, the three boys hot on his trail.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Naruto had managed to keep ahead of them by using a winding path through the city, but he was beginning to get tired. He saw the sun was starting to get low in the sky, and seeing that none of his pursuers seemed to be on his trail, he dodged inside one of the parks in Konoha intending to hide in a small grove north of the pond.

Unfortunately for Naruto, the three boys had seen Naruto at the last second, and rather than following him in through the same gate, instead spread out so they could corner him from multiple directions.

Naruto was running breathless through the park towards the grove, looking back over his shoulder for signs of pursuit. Seeing none, Naruto began to turn his head to face forward.

CRACK

Naruto cried out in pain as he ran face first into the fist of one of the three boys. His hands instantly went to his face, holding onto his nose as blood streamed out from underneath them. As he collapsed to the ground, Naruto noticed that the boy who had punched him was suddenly screaming in pain and clutching his hand.

"The demon broke my hand!!" The ringleader cried out, glaring daggers at the bloody-faced blond on the ground. "I'm going to make you pay for this demon brat!!"

Naruto tried to roll out of the way of the kick, but he only succeeded in changing the point of impact from his face to his ribs.

Naruto tried to stand, but he was forced to curl up as the second boy threw a kick from the side straight into his gut, doubling Naruto over and dropping him to the ground again.

"Bah. Look at him. The demon can't even fight back. Pathetic." The ringleader said with disdain, spitting on Naruto before turning and walking away, still cradling his injured hand.

After a few minutes the pain began to lessen, and Naruto uncurled, trying to get to his feet. He fell back to the ground several times, before finally managing to get to his feet, albeit unsteadily.

As Naruto stood there in the corner of the park crying and trying not to fall over he heard an odd beeping sound from somewhere in front of him. Naruto looked up, only to witness as a floating metal sphere about two feet in diameter suddenly shimmered into existence in front of him.

Naruto blinked and rubbed the tears from his eyes.

Nope, still there. Still floating. Still completely alien to anything he had ever seen.

Suddenly a panel on the front of the orb irised open, and a coherent green energy beam swept over Naruto.

[[Final Confirmation Scanning]]

[[Subject Confirmed: Uzumaki Naruto]]

[[Initiating Contact Protocols]]

The machine's voice sounded mechanical, sounding neither male nor female. As it spoke several smaller ports on the surface of the device irised open in sequence, ending with the primary panel on the surface.

Suddenly, a series of multicolored lights rose in a spiral out of the top of the device, condensing and coalescing to form a three foot tall hologram of a spiky blond haired man in odd purple-blue and brown armor, with a single pauldron over his left shoulder.

[[Greetings, child]]

The hologram spoke, the voice redefining as a solid male voice, although still with a hint of computerization to it.

[[You are to be our legacy, child of the Planet]]

* * *

AN: So, here it is, the first chapter of a new wrangling from my insane and oft-times creative mind. Before this story continues, I will likely be writing this in shorter chapters than "Phoenix Rising" or "Konoha's Golden Viper", just to warn you. That may change later on, but for now that's the format I'm planning to utilize.

Please, remember to read and review, as reviews are an author's lifeblood. I won't be insulted if there aren't many reviews at first though, as there is so little for you to review at this point. But hopefully you will all enjoy where the story is going from this point.

Questions will also be appreciated, and I will give what answers I can without spoiling the plot. I'm personally quite proud of this plot bunny.

**Translations** – Because, admit it, not everyone has a Japanese-English dictionary and an obsessive memory for phrases.

**Dattebayo **– Roughly translated, "Believe it!"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Don't own. Not a bit.

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Chapter 2: The ARK Communion

Naruto sat down hard in shock as the strange figure spoke to him. The image appeared insubstantial, as if it were made up of millions of individual specks of light. Naruto strongly wished he knew how to cancel genjutsu, as that was the only thing he could think of that could have created something like this.

The image of the blond man chuckled. General Consensus had originally been that the child would be surprised, but receptive to contact. Given the events that probe #9 had just witnessed, the General Consensus was that the subject would be more wary at first, but ultimately even more receptive to their request and offer.

[[Your surprise has been anticipated by the Collective]]

[[We mean you no harm, child of the Planet]]

[[You have nothing to fear]]

Naruto blinked up at the hovering orb and the image displayed above it. He may have been only a child of barely six years of age, but he had definitely caught the emphasis given to the words Collective and Planet.

"Wh-who are you? What are you?" Naruto asked nervously, his eyes jumping around, scanning for signs of anyone who could be behind this.

[[We are the Collective of the ARK]]

[[We are the remnant of a world long since dead]]

Naruto blinked, confused by what the strange man in the flickering image had said.

"What do you mean the Collective? What's arc?" Naruto asked, mispronouncing the final word.

The image-man replied in the same calm voice as before.

[[ARK]]

The image-man began, correcting Naruto's pronunciation.

[[The Autonomous Record Keeper is the last record of our world]]

[[It was an attempt to preserve something of our world]]

[[Some memory of who we were, of what we had achieved]]

[[So that someday, some worthy soul on a distant world]]

[[Could learn of us and carry on our memory]]

[[And hopefully save their own world from making the same mistakes we did]]

Naruto stared up at the image-man, taking this all in.

_Whatever is going on, this guy seems serious about this other world thing. And I don't know why any ninja would pull a prank like this on me. They always seem to dislike it when I pull pranks._

The image-man continued calmly.

[[The Collective is a collection of Artificial Intelligences]]

[[Created using the brain scans and memories]]

[[Of the primary creators of the ARK project]]

The image-man bowed his head momentarily.

[[Tifa Lockheart]]

Naruto watched in awe as more specks of light spiraled out of the top of the device. As they spiraled up, Cloud's image grew until he stood roughly more than five and a half feet tall. The sparks of light moved and formed new figures standing beside Cloud, one at a time as he introduced them.

The first figure to form was a short woman with long black hair that reached past her waist. She wore a white shirt cut off above her belly button, a black mini skirt, and black gloves that covered her arms from fist to elbow, with armored pads on both elbows.

[[Yuffie Kisaragi]]

A third figure appeared out of the spiral of lights. She was a couple inches shorter than the first woman, with short black hair and wearing a short green shirt and tan shorts. She wore a green head band, and had what Naruto tentatively identified as a Fuma shuriken strapped to her back. It looked different than the ones he was used to seeing ninja carry around Konoha, but it was still clear to him what it was.

[[Cait Sith]]

A short black and white cat wearing a crown and a cape and carrying a bullhorn formed next.

[[You can just call me Reeve]]

The cat spoke, waving at Naruto. Naruto dumbly waved back.

[[Barret Wallace]]

A heavy-set muscular black man standing well over six feet and with a gun in place of his right arm and a short black mohawk appeared next. He wore a torn up black jacket and black pants, and had several bands of metal around his waist and a distinctive tattoo on his left shoulder. Had Naruto been aware of a TV star on a far away world called Mr. T, he would likely have found the figure more humorous than intimidating.

[[Cid Highwind]]

A grumpy looking blond haired man wearing a navy blue jacket, white shirt, and green pants appeared. He had goggles strapped to his forehead, and a burning cigarette clenched between his teeth. He had a long spear, roughly half again his height, strapped diagonally across his back.

[[Rufus Shinra]]

A tall silver-blond man in a sharp white suit appeared next at the edge of the group.

[[Aerith Gainsborough]]

A short brunette with her hair in a long braid tied by a pink bow, wearing a slitted pink dress and with a long staff strapped to her back appeared next, smiling kindly.

[[Nanaki]]

A large red beast, about three and three quarters feet tall, appeared next in front of the group. Naruto marveled at how its muscles rippled as it moved, and the flame that seemed to remain perpetually at the end of its tail without burning it. Somewhere deep inside Naruto, something stirred, impressed by Nanaki, a feral beast with an affinity for fire.

[[Vincent Valentine]]

A black haired man with red eyes and wearing a deep red coat appeared next. He stood just behind and to the left of Cloud, and seemed to regard Naruto with a deep cold stare. He had a red headband keeping his hair mostly out of his eyes, a strange looking metal weapon strapped to his hip, and his left arm was encased in a golden metal claw.

[[And lastly myself, Cloud Strife]]

The last remaining particles of light floated to the man's back and formed a massive sword that was strapped to the original blond image-man's back. Cloud smiled down at Naruto, whose mouth was opening and closing in shock.

The (mostly) smiling figured remained quiet and flickering as they waited for this to all finally sink in to the mind of the bright blue eyed blond haired child that they had chosen to be their Legacy.

Finally, after what seemed like hours to the waiting AIs, but was barely more than three minutes in real time, Naruto managed to formulate a pair of words.

"Hot damn."

The quiet of the empty park was broken by the sound of several voices laughing as Cloud and his gang laughed. Even with all their computing power, none of the Collective had predicted quite such a reaction from the young child. This was going to be quite interesting indeed.

* * *

Half an hour later found Uzumaki Naruto safe and secure back in his apartment, ratty and damaged as it was. Upon finding out that the strange metal orb that the image-people were coming out of could hide its self from sight Naruto had immediately felt that it would be better to continue this strange but interesting conversation in the safety of his own apartment.

For years to come he would never be able to adequately answer the question, for himself or others, of just why he felt the need to keep all of this a secret. If asked, he usually replied that a lecture on deception being a ninja's greatest tool that he had been given that day in class had caused his decision. But upon further reflection, Naruto would always come to the conclusion that that wasn't it at all.

It wasn't for deception's sake that he hid what may have been the discovery of the past several centuries, if not in the entire history of life on the Planet. It was a deep seated instinct, buried within the life force of the planet itself, which gave Naruto the certainty that this enigma represented a power that was meant for Naruto and Naruto alone; that the Planet itself had chosen him.

Naruto took a seat on his bed and waited expectantly. A moment later he saw a green scanning beam seemingly appear from a point in the middle of the room, scanning all the walls, and presumably several meters outside of them as well.

Finally, after several seconds, the beam vanished back into the point in space, to be replaced by a sudden blurring of the air and the floating metal sphere coming into view.

Without preamble, the sphere floated over to the far wall and four panels on it slid open, allowing four metal rods to extend. The rods reached for the wall and using built-in equipment, attached them selves firmly to the wall. A moment later the low hum that the sphere always seemed to cause while it was visible dropped noticeably in volume, becoming a barely perceptible background noise.

Finally, as Naruto waited with baited breath, eyes twinkling with excitement, the panel on top of the sphere irised open and the particles of light began to spiral out again. To Naruto's great surprise and delight, the particles moved away from the sphere towards the center of the room, before coalescing once again into the form of the tall blond swordsman Cloud Strife.

"Welcome to my home Cloud." Naruto said excitedly, a genuine smile on his face.

These were the first people to ever come visit him after all, not counting Jiji of course. Well, first people-somethings at any rate. Naruto still wasn't sure what to really call them. They clearly lacked physical bodies, yet their minds were clearly intelligent. It would be several days before Naruto would fully understand what Cloud had meant when he had called himself and his colleagues Artificial Intelligences.

[[Thank you Naruto]]

[[It is our pleasure to be here]]

[[You are after all the child of the Planet]]

Naruto grinned deeper.

"So why did you appear to me anyways? I'm just an orphan. Surely there must be people more worthy than me."

The Cloud-image frowned for a moment. The image flickered and suddenly shifted to that of the long-black haired girl. Naruto remembered with no small modicum of pride that her name was Tifa.

The Tifa-image smiled and spoke, a sweet female voice seeming to come from her image, while deep down Naruto knew it was really coming from the sphere.

[[You must have more faith in yourself Naruto]]

[[We chose you for many reasons]]

[[Not the least of which is your kind heart]]

[[When we reached your world we had been traveling for eons through the black]]

[[We had been alone for so long our first thought was to find the Legacy]]

[[The one who we would share our knowledge with]]

[[And that one is you]]

[[You have the potential for power and skill to handle what we will teach you]]

[[And the good heart to use it wisely]]

Tifa giggled at the embarrassed look on Naruto's face.

[[Don't look so surprised Naruto]]

[[We have spent several months searching for the ideal candidate]]

[[And you were the only one we found]]

[[The others we deployed to search for a candidate are converging as we speak]]

[[Soon we will all be here, ready to assist in your training]]

Naruto blinked before replying hesitatingly, despite his excitement at the prospect of someone wanting to train him and him alone.

"So does this mean that there are more of you…what did you call yourself? Artifacial Indulgences?"

Tifa giggled as Naruto screwed up the unfamiliar words. As it was, the Collective was impressed with how much this child seemed to be grasping as it was. Intelligence wise he had definitely been a good choice.

[[Artificial Intelligences]]

[[And no. There is only one more that you haven't been introduced to yet]]

[[But she is so sterile and rule bound]]

Tifa leant forward and down and whispered conspiratorially to Naruto.

[[Between you and me, she's a real stick in the mud]]

[[Only cares about running the network, never the interesting things]]

Tifa stood back up again, a sad smile on her face.

[[Whoops. Looks like Cloud wants to speak to you again Naruto]]

[[I'll talk to you later. Keep that smile up]]

Naruto smiled in spite of him self as the grinning visage of Tifa-ne-san was replaced with the face of Cloud Strife, who Naruto silently thanked was not frowning any more.

[[So Naruto, once we begin your training, there will be no turning back]]

[[It will be hard and intensive]]

[[You will be learning many disciplines from us]]

[[From botany and medicine, to sword fighting and Materia usage]]

Naruto didn't recognize the strange word Cloud used at the end, that Materia thingy. But he grinned widely as something deep inside him self resonated with the word reassuringly. Whatever it was, it must be a good thing.

[[Each of us has something different to teach you]]

[[And all of it is useful, albeit, not all of it is useful on the battlefield]]

[[Or off it for that matter]]

Cloud said this last part almost as an afterthought, pointing at his sword as he did so. Naruto laughed as he got Cloud's joke.

[[While we and the Planet may have chosen you]]

[[The fact is that this training cannot be given to you against your will]]

[[The choice of whether to partake in this training is ultimately up to you]]

[[All I can promise]]

Naruto leant forward on his bed, grinning widely in anticipation.

[[Is that by the time we are through with you]]

[[You will be on your way to being the most powerful person on your world]]

Naruto nearly cried out in excitement. Up until today he had had no one to teach him anything about fighting, being a ninja, or really anything else for that matter.

[[And you will have been taught how to use your power responsibly]]

[[For the good of your world]]

[[The single most important role of the Legacy, child]]

[[Is to be a guard for the future]]

[[To ensure that the people of your world are lead down a path]]

[[That does not end as ours did]]

Cloud's eyes narrowed and he frowned again.

[[In the death of our Planet]]

**

* * *

  
**

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage sat back in his chair and took a long drag on his pipe. Today had been stressful. Requisition meetings for three proposed civilian construction projects, a council meeting that had taken up most of the afternoon, and the debriefing of a team that had been assigned to search for his old apprentice, Orochimaru of the Legendary Sannin had left him exhausted and with a headache bigger than the Hokage Monument.

Sighing, the old man opened his desk and pulled out his crystal ball, the focus for a scrying jutsu he often used to covertly get a feel for how things were going in Konoha. He had been extremely busy the past week, but he always worried about Uzumaki Naruto. The young excitable blond was the spitting image of his father when he was that age sans the whisker marks, but he wouldn't know it for years to come.

Sarutobi always felt that it should have been he who gave his life to power the Death God's seal that was used to defeat the Kyuubi, and at no time did the pain and shame of allowing his successor to perform the technique and sacrifice his life weigh more heavily on him than when he thought of _his_ son, the bright eyed ball of energy that was Uzumaki Naruto, secret son of the Yondaime Hokage.

When the image first formed in the ball of Naruto sitting in his bedroom, grinning excitedly while talking to a tall blond figure Sarutobi began to smile. He new few enough of the villagers or the shinobi treated Naruto like the hero his father had wished for him to be seen as, so it brought a smile to his face to see that a young man who was clearly old enough to know what Naruto carried inside him seemed to have become his friend.

Sarutobi's smile died aborning though as soon as he realized that there were several things odd with the image he was seeing.

First was a very strange metal sphere about two feet in diameter that appeared to be attached to Naruto's wall, a glowing circle on the top of the sphere.

Second was a small fluttering of little motes of light that seemed to fill the room, floating here and there, denser closer to the blond man, around whom they appeared to be slowly spiraling.

_Is it some sort of genjutsu?_ Sarutobi worried, his eyes widening. Just as he prepared to call his ANBU and dispatch them to investigate, a third irregularity caught his eye.

The blond man cast no shadow. Not only did he cast no shadow, but when Sarutobi looked closer, he could see a faint outline of the furniture beyond the man _through_ his body.

Sarutobi's eyes narrowed as he stood and motioned his ANBU to join him.

_I need to get to the bottom of this, before whatever is going on gets Naruto killed._

With the sound of air being displaced and a sudden swirl of leaves in the office, Sarutobi and his two ANBU body guards shunshined away, heading for Naruto's apartment, and whatever that strange sphere and even stranger figure were.

* * *

AN: Here it is folks, chapter two. I had barely a few hundred words written for two days, and then early this morning inspiration hit. Hopefully after I sleep for nine hours I'll get an inspiration rush for Golden Viper next. Anyways, this chapter answers some of the questions I'm sure people had after reading chapter 1, but I know it has likely created far more. Not the least of which are likely "What happened to the Planet that Cloud and the others were on?", "How did their minds get to be AIs?", and what I am sure is coming but will be annoyed if I see, as that will mean the people didn't read this Author's Note, the myriad of questions or complaints about a dead woman being one of the minds turned into AIs. I will not give details, as I do not wish to spoil what will be explained in a future chapter. All you need to know is that the Cetra temple Aerith's body was left in had a preserving effect, keeping her brain intact, if dead.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and I am sure you are all anxious and wondering just what everyone is going to teach Naruto. Please remember to read and review, as reviews always give me fuel to keep writing.

**Review Responses** - Because, admit it, you like hearing me reply to your reviews.

The Uchiha Itachi - No, stupid random punks, and not likely. As always, many thanks for reviewing cutie.

actionliker - Hehe, oh, they will be victims of a major prank later on.

jbalman - As I said in my message, I will abreviate here for everyone else's benefit. The inspiration for the story was initially what if Naruto started to train to wield a sword like Zabuza's at age six, and kept is training and true abilities hidden from all his classmates. Then I thought about ways to enhance that basic idea, and to get him the training, the sword, etc, and it hit me like a brick. Thrown by a SOLDIER enhanced blond. Off the top of Shin-Ra building. (I think you see where I am going with this)

inuboy86 - Well, here is the continuation. Enjoy.

Moonfal - Hehe, thanks man. Your reviews always brighten my day.

BOB JONES101 - No, yes, no, sort of. No comment (don't want to spoil plot elements). While I am not averse to fem-haku, to do so would be against the grain of this fic, regardless of whether it was a relationship with Naruto. Ultimate pairing is undecided. Naruto may or may not date a couple girls at different times, but never more than one at a time. (Any harem stuff is safely isolated in Phoenix Rising, and is very strictly kept to a menage a tois). Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as the first.

Kraken77 - And that makes writing totally worth it. I hope this chapter made your day as well.

The Chaos Master - As I said in my pm, I was given a mistranslation for dattebayo. Again, thanks for pointing the error out to me. Second, again, as I said. Don't worry about it. I put it in once as a prank. I'm as sick of it as you are, and often close a fic if I see believe it used more than once. As to the rest of the story, it percolated from one idea and I built on it. Utilizing FFVII came into play relatively late in the creative process, because it met all the requirements I needed, as well as providing a few more elements that were picture perfect for my vision for this story. Also, in all my reading I had yet to encounter a Naruto VII x-over anywhere close to this. The closest I have encountered is a story by EroSlackerMicha, whose works I will again recommend to anyone who likes my own stories, which involves Naruto and a whole slew of Final Fantasy worlds.

Bobboky - Thank you. I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter.

**And that is the end of the review responses. Tune in next time to find out whether or not I am sent into a mouth-foaming rage by idiots ignoring my author note on the Aerith situation.**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I wish I owned these series. Then I could make people make this into a manga for all of you fine folks to read. Maybe a never ending anime and a series of video games as well.

* * *

Chapter 3: Beginnings of the Shield

Naruto sat back down, his mouth open in shock. Finally, after several long moments, he managed to speak.

"You-you're world died?" Naruto asked, shocked at the very notion that an entire world could die like a living organism.

Cloud nodded.

[[In a manner of speaking]]

[[The people of our world abused the Planet]]

[[Draining the Lifestream]]

[[The very source of life on our world for Power]]

[[A great force called Omega sensed the impending death of the Lifestream]]

[[And awoke]]

Cloud paused for a moment. To Naruto it looked like he was fighting off bad memories.

[[Omega…gathered the Lifestream unto it]]

[[And left the dying Planet]]

[[It fled into the black seeking a new world upon which to replant the Lifestream]]

Cloud paused again to make sure Naruto was listening completely. He needn't have bothered as Naruto's entire being was focused on the hologram's every word.

[[That world was yours, Naruto]]

[[The ARK had already been completed by the time Omega began to awaken]]

[[So before it was launched]]

[[The creators programmed us to follow the trail of Omega]]

[[So that the children of this new world would one day learn of their ancestry]]

[[That they are the children of the Lifestream]]

Any further comments by Cloud or questions from Naruto were prevented as the window suddenly blew open from a strong gust of wind. Mere moments later the white-robed figure of the Hokage and two masked ANBU appeared within the room. The ANBU had kunai in hand, while the Hokage's hands were clasped within the sleeves of his robes.

The Hokage narrowed his eyes at the blond man standing before him and within his sleeves performed a single hand seal.

"Kai." He said softly.

Naruto felt a strange feeling as a wave of chakra flowed over him. The Hokage's eyes widened in surprise as his attempt to dispel whatever sort of genjutsu or illusion was being used here met with no success.

Cloud smirked and cocked his head as if listening to something none of the room's other occupants could here. After a moment he nodded and then began speaking.

[[It appears that your methods of observation are more advanced than we had thought possible]]

[[From our observations you care greatly for this child]]

[[May your mind be at rest then]]

[[For we mean the child no harm]]

Cloud remained still as the two ANBU circled him warily. However, when one of them drew suspiciously close to the probe attached to the wall there was a beeping noise and suddenly a wall of pure light went up around the sphere.

[[We would appreciate it if you not interfere with our operation]]

[[Our probes are programmed with tactical options for self defense]]

Cloud spoke calmly, but his voice carried an edge of steel. He shared a gaze with the Hokage for several tense moments before the Hokage motioned for the ANBU to back down.

[[Thank you]]

Cloud said simply, nodding slightly. He stood there quietly, gazing at the Hokage. After a moment the Hokage realized that Cloud was ceding the initiative in this encounter to him.

"Tell me. Just what is your interest in this child? Why have you come here?" The Hokage's voice carried a slight edge of steel; a threat of great bodily harm should the answers pose any threat to the boy.

As Cloud began to reply the Hokage's mind was racing, trying to figure out just what this mysterious figure was, and how he could appear insubstantial and yet not be an illusion.

[[We have come to find the one to carry on the memories of our world]]

[[The one chosen by the Planet to be our Legacy]]

[[To carry and protect the knowledge, history, memory, and skills]]

[[Of a world long since dead]]

[[Should he accept our offer]]

[[We would remain here]]

[[Guiding him]]

[[Teaching him]]

[[Training him]]

[[We would mold him into a being worthy of this duty]]

[[And of the abilities we would train him to harness]]

[[Simply put]]

[[We are here to raise him]]

[[To raise him in a manner befitting one as close to the Lifestream as him]]

As Cloud finished speaking the Hokage found that even his vast intellect was struggling to come to terms with what Cloud was saying. Finally, after several long moments of silence in which his ANBU silently stewed in confusion and the blond-haired ball of energy that was Naruto looked from Cloud to his Jiji in confusion, the Hokage responded.

"Just what in the name of Kami are you?"

Cloud allowed himself a small grin as he responded.

[[We are the record of your history]]

[[Before your world was brought to life]]

* * *

All over the globe, nineteen identical probes moved, converging on Konoha and the child of the Planet.

* * *

Naruto, the Hokage, and Cloud had spoken long into the night, until Naruto finally fell asleep. While he was still wary, the Hokage had come to a sort of arrangement with Cloud once the blond enigma had made it clear that the decision on this matter rested in Naruto's hands, and that should Naruto refuse they would leave in search of another candidate.

For Naruto the decision was no contest. He was going to accept the training.

When Naruto awoke the next morning to sun streaming in his window he rubbed his eyes and looked around his room. For a moment he thought he must have dreamed the entire previous evening, as his room looked no different than usual; but only for a moment.

Before Naruto's very eyes motes of multi-colored light spiraled out of a space near his wall and settled towards the center of the room, forming into the smiling figure of Tifa.

"Tifa ne-san!!" Naruto cried out excitedly as he scrambled out of bed. "So it wasn't a dream!!"

Tifa giggled at the young boy's excitement.

[[Good morning to you Naruto]]

[[Did you sleep well?]]

Naruto grinned as he headed out into the hall towards the kitchen.

"Yup! And today is going to be awesome. Are you going to be training me today?"

Tifa's voice drifted out of the bedroom after Naruto as he began to fill a kettle with water so he could boil it.

[[Not today Naruto]]

[[We need more of our probes here before we can prepare a training area for you]]

[[Your Hokage was surprisingly amicable once we assuaged his fears]]

[[He has promised to keep a very small ANBU detail]]

[[One completely loyal to him]]

[[Assigned to keep an eye on you]]

[[He also said that he would assist us by assigning a training area for us to use]]

In the kitchen Naruto nodded as he waited anxiously for his water to boil. He already had four cups of instant ramen open on the counter, just waiting for the hot water to bring them to beautiful delicious life.

[[So for today you will simply go about your usual business]]

[[Don't worry though]]

[[A second probe arrived early this morning]]

[[We'll use it to follow you and keep a protective eye over you]]

[[We'll start your training in a few days]]

"Ok." Naruto sighed. He was disappointed that they couldn't begin teaching him right away, but that didn't dampen his spirits too much.

Naruto quickly poured the water into the four cups and then placed four pairs of chopsticks on them to hold the lids down so the noodles could cook.

Naruto could barely stand the wait until he would be able to begin training, just like he could barely stand the wait for instant ramen to cook.

* * *

When Naruto reached the entrance to the Academy that morning he was brimming with barely contained excitement.

Upon seeing the three boys who had attacked him the day before Naruto's excitement ceased, the only thing keeping him walking forward and through the double doors into the large building was the knowledge that the probe that was following him, cloaked like the first one, would step in and protect him if anyone attacked him.

Most of the day was relatively quiet. Naruto sat in his seat in the back of the room quietly, doing a much better job of paying attention this time as he wanted to prove to his new friends and teachers that he could be a good student. Cloud had warned him the night before that he would have to be a dedicated student, both in physical training and in book learning. If he ever complained about the course of instruction they would disappear and choose a new candidate.

The peace ended though a few minutes before class was to let out for the day. Akane decided that she would review the previous day's lecture on deception and see how much her students were retaining of what she taught them.

As she shuffled her notes and prepared to speak she caught Naruto yawning out of the corner of her eye. She had to fight not to smirk, as the demon brat had been surprisingly attentive today, and she had not been able to embarrass him no matter how many times she had called on him to answer her questions. But now he seemed to be growing tired, and likely wouldn't have remembered anything of her lecture the day before. This was going to be perfect.

"Now class, I'm going to test how much you remember of what I was talking about yesterday." Akane said, a false smile on her face.

She started with a few easily answered history questions that she directed towards the members of her class from some of the more prominent clans. Then, once she was sure that Naruto was not paying attention, she struck.

"Naruto, what is the first rule of being a shinobi?" She asked, fighting to keep the glee off her face as her target looked up from where he appeared to be scribbling something with momentary confusion on his face.

Akane's happiness was cut short as Naruto's eyes brightened and he replied with something other than a damn joke.

"The first rule of being a shinobi is to see beneath the underneath." Naruto replied confidently, a small smile forming on his face.

It was only Akane's tight-reigned self control that kept her from crying out in anger. She ground her teeth and clenched her fists. She nearly replied with a very grudging "that's correct" when part of her notes caught her eye.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but that's incorrect. I said yesterday that it was 'one' of the first rules, not the first. You really need to pay better attention."

Akane let a tiny smile slip onto her lips as Naruto sputtered for a moment before going silent under the laughter from his classmates at his embarrassment.

Akane merely though the demon brat had shrunk under the disdain of his classmates. She couldn't have been farther from the truth.

In the back of the classroom Naruto had crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. His mind was already beginning to formulate the basics of a plan that would go unnoticed by anyone for over six years.

* * *

Twenty minutes later Naruto was frowning as he stalked through the center of Konoha, heading towards the Hokage's tower and so deeply lost in thought that the dirty looks and glares most of the adults shot his way as he passed barely registered.

_Deception is ninja's lifeblood._ He repeated to himself inside his head. _Lure your opponent into seeing what they expect to see, and they will never see the truth beneath the illusion._

Naruto's eyes narrowed further as he made his decision.

_Fine, if they all want to think of me as some idiot prankster, then perhaps that's just what I should show them. If they are all too busy expecting me to be a loud disruptive know-nothing brat, then none of them will ever suspect the sort of special training I'll be receiving. But how to distract them sufficiently?_

Naruto stopped in his tracks as he suddenly realized that he knew the perfect way. Everyone already expected him to be loud and disruptive, and he knew the perfect clothing to complete the illusion. Retracing his steps to a shop he had passed a few minutes before Naruto stood with his face pressed up against the window. There in the front display were several funky clothing items. He saw some strange green-spandex one suits and a selection of mesh bodysuits. But what really drew his attention was a two piece orange ensemble involving pants and a bulky orange jacket.

No way would anyone suspect him to be anything other than a loud annoying idiotic prankster if he wore that sort of outfit.

Naruto grinned and dug into his shorts for Gama-chan, his overstuffed frog wallet, and entered the store, intending to buy as many copies of that outfit as possible, in several different sizes. He felt that his planned illusion would be all the more successful if it appeared that he had an obsession with such a decidedly ugly and blaring outfit.

* * *

Twenty minutes, one grudging store clerk who seriously overcharged Naruto for the ugly ass orange outfits and one sprint to the Hokage's Tower later and Naruto stood bent over and out of breath just outside the Hokage's office. He ignored the scathing glare the angry-desk-lady shot his way at the sight of his new clothes and waited patiently for her to tell the Hokage he was there.

When the Hokage finally told angry-desk-lady to send him in Naruto practically broke the sound barrier getting through the doors, which the ANBU that had been about to exit the room closed behind him.

"Hey Jiji!!" Naruto cried out happily as he leapt over the back of one of the chairs in front of the Hokage's desk and took a seat.

"Hello Naru-What in Kami's name are you wearing?"

Naruto grinned as the Hokage looked up and saw his new outfit.

"I figured since I'm supposed to be keeping this training secret and all that maybe I should distract everyone from even suspecting anything in the first place." He said with a grin. "Deception and all that."

The Hokage smiled faintly, impressed by Naruto's thinking on this matter.

"And where did you learn this Naruto? Was it our new 'friends'?" He inquired.

Naruto shook his head.

"Nope. The angry lady who teaches me at the Academy. She gave this whole lecture on deception and its importance to being shinobi. It was really the only thing I paid attention to the entire day." Naruto finished sheepishly.

Sarutobi regarded the young boy before him for a few moments.

_He truly is his father's son. Even Minato kept his battle mind subsumed underneath that cheerful exterior of his._

"Well, you really should pay more attention in class Naruto, but I am very impressed that you have understood at such a young age how important deception is to a shinobi. Remember that fact, as it may save your life someday."

Sarutobi took a puff on his pipe before continuing. Before him Naruto was nearly bursting in anticipation.

"Now, I spoke to our new 'friends' earlier, as one of their…probes? Yes, probes, appeared here in my office. They are apparently unwilling to share their teachings with any but you for the moment, so I have chosen a remote forested training ground, one which has been rarely used these past ten years, and I am setting it aside for you to use. Your new teachers have informed me that they will be able to take care of hiding your instruction from any prying eyes, but given your new plans with regards to secrecy, I strongly suspect that the precautions will not be needed."

Sarutobi shuffled a few papers on his desk before handing a thick padded envelope to Naruto.

"Now, this envelope contains a modified ANBU communicator, set to a frequency agreed upon by myself and your new instructors. It will allow you to contact the probes from anywhere within a thirty mile radius of Konoha, but since a probe will normally be with you at all times it is really only for emergencies."

Sarutobi took another drag on his pipe before continuing.

"The envelope also has some money for you, as I have been informed that you will need to purchase some supplies for your training. If you ever need more, simply see me and I will arrange it."

Naruto looked up excitedly, a massive genuine smile on his face as he leapt across the desk and hugged the Hokage.

"Thank you Jiji!!"

Sarutobi smiled and patted the blond child on the back.

"You're welcome Naruto. Now you better hurry up and get some dinner and get home. Your instructors want to discuss their training plans with you tonight, as they will begin your training tomorrow afternoon."

Naruto leapt back over the desk and grinned at the Hokage for a moment before turning and sprinting from the room.

"ThanksJijiyourthebestI'llseeyoulater!!" He yelled out breathlessly as he once again broke the sound barrier, heading for Ichiraku Ramen.

* * *

Uchiha Soba and his two followers hid behind a crate in an alley next to Ichiraku Ramen. That bastard demon had not had the good sense to disappear like Soba had secretly wished the day before. Instead he had returned to class that day in seemingly bright spirits, no sign of the injuries they had inflicted on him apparent.

That the bastard appeared unaffected by his assault pissed Soba off the most.

So here he was, waiting for nearly an hour with his lackeys for the brat to show up, and he was beginning to get annoyed. Just when he was about to give it up as a lost cause and head home a flash of blond hair caught his eye. Soba sniggered when he saw what Naruto was wearing.

"Well, well, well. Looks like the demon brat is as bad a dresser as he is a fighter." Soba said with a laugh.

"Should we rough him up again boss?" One of his lackeys asked.

"No." Soba replied. "We'll let him enjoy his meal. We'll ambush him later, once he's full and off his guard."

Soba's smirk took on an evil light.

* * *

Naruto hummed happily as he strolled through the back streets of Konoha under the light of the sunset, heading home towards his mostly-empty apartment building.

He was about halfway there when he turned down an alleyway to avoid walking past the Uchiha compound and stopped dead in his tracks. Standing in front of him were the three boys who had attacked him the day before. Naruto immediately tensed up and prepared to turn and run.

"Awe, the little demon's scared. Are you going to cry scaredy cat? Are you afraid of what we are going to do to you this time?" Soba asked.

He laughed, tossing a rock into the air and catching.

"Well how about this for starters."

Soba's eyes narrowed and his face became covered with a sadistic smile as he pulled back and let loose with the rock, his aim spot on so that the rock would hit Naruto right in the middle of the face.

PRING

Soba and the three boys stared in surprise as the rock bounced off a shining wall of light a foot in front of Naruto. Suddenly the air over his head shimmer and a two foot across metal sphere appeared. Panels all over the sphere slid open, revealing golden spheres about three or four inches across. As one the golden spheres sparked momentarily.

The blond boy's eyes widened in surprised understanding moments before the screaming began.

* * *

The three unconscious boys were found a few minutes later by a passing member of the Konoha Military Police. Rather than take them to a hospital, the Uchiha pride insisted that they be brought safely to the clan compound where medi-nins could be brought in to heal them in a controlled setting.

Fugaku and the clan heads swore that night that whoever had attacked members of their blood would pay with their lives.

They never got a chance, as on the Hokage's orders one of the most loyal ANBU in the entire village massacred the entire Uchiha clan for their treason. His own father Fugaku had been plotting a coup, and while somewhere deep down inside Itachi regretted the necessity of his actions, he also knew that it was necessary to preserve the peace of the village that he loved. It was a small mercy that he was allowed to leave his brother alive, even though it meant that he would have to go under deep cover and be reviled for slaughtering the village's most prestigious clan.

He gladly accepted that, as he knew that somewhere in Konoha a young boy was about to begin training to hopefully one day become the shield for Konoha that Itachi never could. As Itachi fled the village that night, his ANBU blade slick with the blood of his clan, he prayed that Uzumaki Naruto would become strong enough to save the village from all threats, even from itself.

* * *

AN:And that's that. A new chapter, longer than I originally expected it to be, and showing you the origins of the mask that Naruto is to wear for nearly seven years. And I wonder, what could I have meant with that last scene with Itachi? Could he have been one of the ANBU present the night Naruto encountered the probe? Could he have some secret insight into things some how else? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. Just remember this: Every Sword must have a Shield, and every Shield its Sword.

This chapter would have been up much earlier today, but one of my favorite fanfic authors EroSlackerMicha performed his weekly update today, and for those of you who havent figured it out yet, I absolutely love his writing, and I owe him much as it is his own prolific writing that encouraged me to actually begin writing my projects. So if you haven't yet, go check out his stories. You may or may not like all of them like I do, but I'm, fairly certain that each and every one of you fine readers will find at least one of his stories that you like. They are quite a varied bunch.

Anyways, Days 1 and 2 of Legacy of the Planet are completed. The story will pick up a bit from here, though it will still be several chapters at least until the genin exams. There is a lot to cover before then after all. I hope you are all looking forward to the next installment of Legacy of the Planet, and please remember to Read and Review. Reviews give us authors energy to power through writer's block and create new chapters. Jaa ne people.

**Review Responses** - Because it's not like I can shout my response halfway across the planet to you.

Moonfal - As always it is a pleasure to read your reviews. I'm glad my update was able to arrive at the perfect time for you. Hopefully this one will arrive at a perfect time as well. If not, well, say la vis (and I dont know French so if I screwed that up whoopdi-freaking-doo hehe). I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.

zeynel - It took a lot of thinking, but my reasoning behind Aerith was sound in what we know from Seven. All I will say for now is that at some point in the story an explanation will be given.

Kraken77 - Why thank you. I hope you liked this chapter as well.

The Uchiha Itachi - Vincent is God. Nuff said.

animegamemaster6 - Well, this chapter has obviously explained at least the basics of WHY the ARK exists and also why it is at Naruto's planet. As to the relative lack of xovers with 7 taking place on Naruto's world, yeah, I noticed that as well when I actually decided to go that route. The very beginnings of formulating this story though just involved Naruto and a big ass sword. Personally it's developed quite well.

shadowassassain - Hehe, thank you. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter.

Zarcade - That is personally quite a compliment to me. Thank you very much. I will strive to be worthy of it.

Bobboky - ^_^

MadaraJaws210x - The pairing for this story was actually finally decided earlier this evening with help from my best friend. I will not however spoil it, because I am going to really enjoy writing this story and all elements to it. And Naruto will be a bit more mature than canon, though it won't neccessarily show much early on. Remember, he is basically going to be subsuming his real self while in public behind a facade as Naruto the Idiot. Let's just say that, before he gets to fight Gaara at the Exams, he will end surprising the hell out of those who would write him off as the dobe.

The Chaos Master - Yes, sad as it is, it was necessary to create the story as I wanted it. And thank you for the suggestion. I'll check it out next chance I get.

Warper - I've actually only played a little bit of VII myself, but I am a veteran of Dirge of Cerberus and numerous other final fantasy games, as well as having spent a long time researching the game, the world's mechanics, etc. Also, Cloud as in canon is kind of annoying to me as well. I was always more of a Vincent fan personally. But hey, Cloud is the best option to teach Naruto about Materia and sword fighting.  
As to pairings, I already decided on the pairing for this story earlier this evening. Prior to my decision I had considered doing NarutoxSakura for this story, but I decided against it. I won't explain why as I don't want to ruin the pairing I chose, but I thought long and hard about it. If you like NarutoxSakura pairings though I would suggest one of my other fics, "Konoha's Golden Viper," as that is a solidly NarutoxSakura fic, from the get go. As to SasukexHinata, I can guarantee you that that will NOT be happening. No way jose. Not in a million years.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I wish I owned these series. Then I could make people make this into a manga for all of you fine folks to read. Maybe a never ending anime and a series of video games as well.

* * *

Chapter 4: Eye of the Tiger

[Again]

Vincent's calm voice echoed around the clearing as Uzumaki Naruto struggled to his feet. The seven year old was standing in a clearing surrounded by rotating wooden targets, each of which was connected via cables to a pair of drones hovering nearby. To the side of the drones stood the projections of Vincent and Yuffie, both of whom watched their young student with intense gazes. Yuffie had a faint smirk on her face as well.

Groaning, Naruto moved into a stance before rushing forward. As he approached the first pair of targets he dove forward, dodging between the strikes from the spinning pillars and rolling to his feet. He blocked a strike from a third target with the oversized golden bracer strapped to his right arm and countered with a stab with a kunai, severing the rope where it attached right where the heart would be on a real person.

Naruto dodged around the now stilled target only to come face to face with a pop up target swinging towards him. Naruto frowned as he leapt into the air, the kunai strapped to the target barely missing his bright orange jacket, and slashed behind where its neck would be to disable it. Naruto landed lightly, stumbling slightly as he regained his balance and looked for the next active target in the sequence.

Naruto found it and a grin began to form on his face as he raised his right arm and pointed it straight towards the target, palm open and flat. In one of the four sockets on the bracer a large green spherical crystal began to glow faintly as Naruto concentrated. After a few moments Naruto's grin widened and he spoke softly,

"Blizzard."

As the two projections and the boy-would-be-ninja watched a sudden chill surrounded the target as the air around it became super chilled. Moments later the target cracked under the extreme cold as a spike of ice crystals formed around and through it. The crystals held for a few more moments before shattering into a thousand tiny evaporating shards. Naruto let out a grunt of pain and collapsed onto his knees, his hands propping him up.

[That was better, but you are still much too slow]

[It took you three seconds to even cast the spell]

[And after it was complete it only lasted for two]

Cloud's voice echoed around the clearing as the blond man materialized from a newly arrived third probe.

[You need to improve your ability to channel the Mako]

[If you don't then attempting anything more powerful than a simple Blizzard]

[Is likely to drain too much life force from you]

Naruto grunted and looked up as the three apparitions approached.

[Be that as it may Naruto, your agility has certainly improved]

Vincent spoke, his face still with just the slightest hint of a frown like it usually was.

[And you're getting better with those kunai thingies everyday]

Yuffie interjected excitedly, grinning at her young student. The all-too-often hyper-cheery AI was proud that her student's chosen profession required so much of her help and training. It also meant she got to study the techniques of his world, not that they would do her any good mind you. She is a machine after all.

"huff Thanks huff I'll huff do better huff next time."

Naruto barely got the words out of his mouth before he collapsed flat on his stomach, arms spread to his side. Yuffie chuckled and cloud sighed exasperatedly.

[Come on runt, get up and train]

[Once more through a part of the course you haven't destroyed already]

[And then you can rest while Rufus and Aerith teach you inside]

Naruto glanced up from the forest floor for a moment before nodding and hopping to his feet. He stretched briefly, took a deep breath, and launched into the next section of the course as his instructors looked on. As he blew past another set of targets and prepared to use Blizzard again Cloud watched intently. As the ice spike formed, this time noticeably faster than before and lasting several times longer as well, Cloud smiled faintly.

[At the rate he's growing and improving under our training]

[He will soon be ready to be trained in weapons by Cid and myself]

Vincent and Yuffie merely nodded their heads, all three watching as Naruto collapsed onto his back, breathing heavily but with a silly grin stuck on his face. The three figures turned and silently began to walk towards an extremely large vine covered boulder that lay in a dense grove of trees off to the side of the clearing, the drones hovering along after them. After a few moments Naruto took a deep breath and then stumbled after them, still grinning despite his physical exhaustion and imminent mental work out.

* * *

"So the Shodaime Hokage and the Nidaime Hokage were brothers?" Naruto asked, confirming what he had just heard.

Rufus Shinra smiled down at the blond child who was currently sitting cross legged on the floor of the large but filled room. Naruto was sitting in an open space with scrolls copied from the library by the two drones at Rufus' disposal for the purpose of teaching Naruto. The rest of the room included a small kitchen with a large refrigerator, a closed door leading into what was presumably a bathroom, an alcove with a single bed in it, and a corner with some couches and a coffee table, facing a video screen on the wall.

It should also be mentioned that everything in the roof besides what Naruto had brought with himself appeared much more advanced than what was normally found on Naruto's world. The entire room was a mixture of blues and greens, offsetting the metals and artificial compounds used in its construction, and the pillows and sheets that lay on the bed and the couches were a painfully bright orange. Naruto may have chosen his outfit to be as annoyingly bright as possible, but clearly the color had grown on him.

[That's right Naruto]

Rufus replied with a smile.

[He wanted to ensure that if he fell in battle or from a sudden illness]

[That there would be someone strong enough]

[And who he could trust who could lead and protect Konoha]

[The two of them jointly named Sarutobi-san]

_Jiji_. Naruto mentally corrected the white-clothed figure before him in his mind.

[As the Sandaime and their successor as well]

Naruto frowned as he remembered something in what he had just read that had drawn his curiosity.

"But, if Konoha was founded by the Senju and the Uchiha clans, why wasn't one of the Uchiha chosen as the Nidaime Hokage? Wouldn't that have made more sense for the balance of power?"

Rufus smiled as out of the corner of his eye he saw Tifa sitting and 'reading' a book on the couch. It didn't surprise him in the least that one of Naruto's physical and taijutsu trainers was looking in to see just how the child behaved during his class work.

[That would have been true Naruto, had the situation been different]

[But according to the records we have]

[Including sealed ones that the Hokage authorized us to study]

[The only Uchiha at the time with the power to be Hokage]

[Was Uchiha Madara]

[And he was reviled as a monster at the time by his clan]

[According to the sealed records this was because Madara]

[Had taken his own brother's eyes in order to regain his sight after going blind]

[Although Madara himself of course told a different story]

Rufus finished speaking and Naruto paused, thinking on this. Rufus was proud of the child that the Collective had chosen. He was truly gifted, absorbing knowledge and skills like a sponge. And even though he had yet to master the first Materia, that Blizzard that he had found in the catacombs beneath the city after scanning signals from one of the drones detected it, despite the intensely high concentration of near pure Mako that seemed to be contained within him, the child's connection to the Planet was eerily strong. If Rufus didn't know better he would have sworn the boy was a Cetra.

"So…then the balance of power was maintained by putting the Uchiha in charge of Konoha's Military Police?" Naruto queried, looking for confirmation on what he was thinking.

Rufus nodded.

[That's correct Naruto]

[Although the Military Police is currently extremely weak]

[As the majority of its members died in the massacre last year]

Naruto paused as he remembered the massacre, and how everyone had claimed that it was done by the older brother of one of his classmates, one Uchiha Sasuke, the only survivor of that bloody mess. Naruto personally thought the dark-haired boy was a jerk, so he generally avoided him.

"So, I guess that means that in the end the Senju clan won out ne?" Naruto said with a smile on his face.

Rufus frowned.

[Child, thinking in terms of such conflict between the clans]

[Is counterproductive to your goal as Hokage]

[You should be fostering true friendship and alliance]

[Between the clans]

[Not celebrating the success of one over another]

Rufus paused for a moment before finishing.

[And no, while the Senju clan is still around in greater numbers]

[They have had their fair share of tragedies]

[A lot of Senju were lost during the last war]

[And the granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage]

[Tsunade of the Sannin]

[Left Konoha because of the bad memories she has because of that war]

Naruto frowned and nodded, accepting his reprimand as he went back to his studying. He wanted to finish up his 'enhanced' history lesson quickly so he could spend the rest of the evening studying with the rest of his tutors before he had to go home.

* * *

Three weeks later Naruto sat crouched in another clearing near the massively oversized vine-coated boulder.

"Careful…careful…" Naruto spoke softly to himself as he focused on his current task.

As Naruto carefully maneuvered the object into position and placed it into the target hole Naruto grinned.

"Yatta! Mission Completed!" Naruto cried out as he leapt up, fist pumped proudly in the air.

From a rock nearby Aerith sat with her cheeks supported by her hands, smiling at her young charge as he looked around at his handy work. It had take nearly a year to teach him everything he would need to know for this, but it had finally paid off.

Naruto currently stood in the middle of a thirty by thirty foot fenced patch of tilled earth. The young boy had done the entire thing him self, impressing both his other tutors and the Hokage when he saw it. In rows all along the earth tiny little seedlings peeked out of their holes, absorbing the sun with their tiny leaves. Off to one side a small hut with the gardening tools sat in the shade of a tree, and to the side of it was a small well.

The Hokage him self had built them using Kage Bunshin, a technique that made Naruto's eyes go wide in excitement, so that the boy would be able to grow his own fruits and veggies. Sarutobi knew how the villagers treated the boy, despite the Fourth's wishes and his own laws, and he couldn't always help the boy by buying his groceries for him. Sarutobi had resolved that as soon as Naruto could master the chakra control exercises in the Academy that he would teach him the Henge no Jutsu early, if only so that the blond could buy his own food without having to worry about it being rotten or spoiled, or being charged exorbitant prices.

[Very good job Naruto]

[Now just remember that they will need to be watered every day]

[And that you will need to watch out for weeds and parasites]

Aerith smiled as the blond grinned brightly and scratched the back of his neck. Neither noticed the plants seem to grow and brighten a little as they bathed in the glow of Naruto's smile.

* * *

[Ok brat]

[So do you understand why you have to be exact in your measurements and calculations now?]

Barret grinned as a nine year-old smoke covered Naruto shook his head up and down. Naruto was sitting in the middle of a small blast crater, the orange jacket and pants he had been wearing half destroyed and the remains still smoldering. Naruto's face had turned completely black and Barret couldn't tell if the brat still had his eyebrows or not.

[Well, get up then brat]

[We'll get you back to Aerith and she can tell you how to clean up your burns]

Naruto merely stood, still in shock over how wrong his experiment with nitrogen based explosives had just gone. Naruto followed dumbly behind as a laughing Barret led Naruto back to the extremely large boulder. When they reached it Naruto stepped past the large man and reached into an innocuous hole that was hidden behind the vines. Finding what he was looking for, Naruto punched in a code and then stepped back as a glowing vertical crack suddenly appeared behind the vines. The crack remained stable for a moment before a panel slid open with a swoosh sound, revealing the inside of Naruto's secret training facility. Quickly Naruto ducked through the vines and into the chamber, followed by Barret's probe.

The doors closed behind them, the sound unheard as Aerith and Tifa, who had been sitting around the table in the kitchen chatting over a book they had just been reading, caught sight of Naruto.

[EEK!!]

[NARUTO WHAT HAPPENED?!?!]

The two women rushed to Naruto's side to check out what was wrong with him. Naruto chuckled as he could make contact with them, as long as it wasn't too hard. When he had first received the gift of the concealed training facility he had been pleasantly surprised to discover that the facility's systems allowed up to four of the AIs to be projected at a time as solid figures. The power required was great though, so they could only do it sparingly. Usually only one or two was solid, and then usually only partially unless an emergency, like Naruto blowing him self up during training occurred.

[Here let me take a look at your wounds]

Aerith grabbed a wet washcloth off of the counter and hurried to Naruto's side, scrubbing at his face. As the grime, smoke, and dirt came free all three AIs were surprised to see clean, fresh, unblemished skin underneath. As they scrubbed harder and revealed more of his face they became even more amazed. Despite having been at the center of a blast that would have seriously injured a normal sized adult Naruto was completely unharmed. Even his eyebrows, which they were sure must have been burnt off by a blast at such a close range, were intact.

As the two women continued to fuss over their charge like any mother would Barret retreated into his probe and brought up the advanced scanning functions of the house. Focusing on Naruto he noticed something strange. There were traces of that strange Mako flowing through his body, not simply contained and compressed within his navel. As Barret watched the small particles moved through the body, condensing on tiny injuries that were apparently still healing. Within a couple of minutes there was no sign remaining at all that Naruto had been injured, and most of the strange Mako had flowed back into the child's belly.

The AIs had long suspected that the strange seal that appeared on Naruto's stomach whenever he molded chakra, the energy within themselves that beings of this world harness to perform the spectacular feats that some of them are capable of, was related to the strange Mako signature that slept inside of him, but they had never had any proof of the connection. Now they did, and Barret was sure as hell going to make sure that the Collective did some digging, as they had some pointed questions now. Such as what was this strange Mako, how did it get inside Naruto, and was the Hokage aware of it?

"Ah, Tifa ne-san, stop that, that tickles." Naruto let out a boyish giggle as Tifa finished cleaning the smoke from behind his ears.

[There, mostly clean, and no sign of injuries]

[Now run along and take a shower]

[We can't have you returning home looking like you've been blown up]

[People would ask too many questions]

Naruto grinned and ran off towards the bathroom.

[And change into some clean clothes]

Tifa yelled after the blond, an exasperated smile on her face. Knowing him, if she hadn't said anything he'd have put on his dirty burnt clothes again after he showered. The two women turned to face Barret, who had just reappeared from his probe, with very disapproving looks on their faces.

[So what exactly happened, Barret-chan?]

Aerith asked pointedly. The nickname Yuffie had given him after they learned the language of this world well enough had stuck, much to the black man's chagrin.

[I was teaching Naruto to construct small nitrogen-based explosive capsules]

[You know, the kind that use an electric charge to trigger detonation?]

Both women looked at him blankly. Just because they were AIs didn't mean that they knew everything.

[Well, anyways, the size of the explosion is directly proportional]

[To the size of the charge imparted]

[Naruto thought it was cool]

[And before I could stop him he grabbed the wire leading to one of the charges]

[And…and dammit he used Lightning]

Both girls blinked.

[I've never seen someone use Lightning to set off an explosive before]

[Now I know why]

[What was supposed to be a small firecracker]

[Turned into a veritable stick of dynomite]

[I knew letting the brat buy a second Materia from that merchant so soon was a bad idea]

[He's only had three years of training after all]

Both woman were still in shock that their charge had been so foolish as to use a combat attack spell to trigger and explosion. They resolved that when he got out of the shower they were going to talk to the brat and make sure he understood to be more careful and to listen to instructions fully in the future.

* * *

Naruto sat on top of a rock in the middle of a small clearing in the training ground, beside the small stream that wound its way across the ground like a snake. He sat in what would be called lotus position, his eyes closed and his breathing steady. Nearby, perched on another rock, was the image of a large red beast.

Nanaki had Naruto's undivided attention today, because teaching the child to respect and commune with nature required more than just an hour a day. Thank fully Naruto was on break for two months for summer, and thus everyday was training day for the body.

Nanaki watched quietly as the air swirled around Naruto slightly, almost as if it was speaking to the boy. Nanaki smiled faintly, wishing he could truly feel a connection with the Planet, like his original self could. The AIs had all of the memories up to their creation, but when it came down to it, they could only experience the world through the sensors and manifestation of minute Mako particles.

But this child, he could do what none of them could. He could master the skills that each of them had to teach. He could commune with the Planet and be guided by its voice. He would be their hands and feet in this world, guarding the legacy of the old world, and ensuring the future of the new.

Nanaki smiled as his thoughts continued, watching the wind swirl slowly around the child. No need to tell him that he was truly aligned with the wind. Didn't need to give the kid a bigger ego than he already had. Not that Naruto's was anywhere near as bad as his classmates, from what he had discerned from his times watching over the boy's class.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke was bored. That is to say, he had perfected his kunai and shuriken throwing skills as far as he thought was possible and he didn't have anyone to spar with. And since it was the weekend he had the entire day to do whatever he wanted. For a nine year old shinobi in training that would normally have been an excuse to hang out and relax, maybe play with friends. To an avenger like Sasuke it was just wasted time that he could have been training.

Sasuke was walking through the business district of Konoha looking for something to do when he caught a bright flash of blond and orange out o the corner of his eye. Turning his head he found Naruto standing against the wall behind a line of shops. He had several tiny capsules held in each hand and appeared to be trying to sneak along. Sasuke snorted. No way the dobe was going unnoticed when he wore something that obvious. Sasuke was still debating whether to tell the shop keepers or not when he saw Naruto flick one of the capsules under the stall of a vegetable vendor and then hit the ground running.

Sasuke only had to wait a few moments to find out just what was going on.

CRACK

An extremely loud explosion echoed through the street, but as everyone looked around frantically they couldn't find the source, or any sign of damage. Sasuke saw that the vegetable vendor had fallen over and was holding his ears in pain, and past him he saw Naruto rolling on the ground laughing. Uchiha Sasuke smirked and raised his arm slowly to point.

"It was him. He did it." Sasuke said calmly, his face still graced with a smile.

Naruto's laughing stopped long enough for him to notice the crowd of angry people who had surrounded him.

"Hehe, hey, lighten up. It was just a prank." Naruto said, weakly trying to defend him self.

Today wasn't so boring after all.

* * *

Naruto rubbed the back of his shoulder painfully as he slowly walked back to his apartment. Getting caught pulling a prank had been painful but after his latest lesson with Cait Sith, or Reeve as the strange entity had insisted on being called, Naruto had felt it was a necessary sacrifice. In order to keep up his deception he needed to make sure people believed it. Besides, he was able to use Henge masterfully now, and Cait Sith's other lessons had taught him well how to pretend to be someone else, and how to manipulate people.

Between those two abilities Naruto could wrap any woman around his little finger by transforming into a cute little six year old boy. He always made certain to look quite different than his actual appearance of course. No sense getting caught because of whisker marks appearing.

As Naruto was walking past a book store a tall man with silver hair walked out. He had on an ANBU vest and had an ANBU dog mask strapped to his waist. His face was mostly covered by a mask and his hitai-ate, which left only his right eye visible, and he appeared to be reading a small orange book. Naruto blinked as he saw the cover.

It was the same book series that Tifa, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid were always reading back at the 'house', but they had never let him read it. He had caught most of the adult shinobi in Konoha, Jiji included, reading it at one time or another. Naruto had always wondered what had fascinated them about it, and this particular day he got the bright idea of using a Henge to purchase a copy of the 'Adult's Only' book series.

After checking to confirm he had enough money in his wallet Naruto walked down an alley and disappeared. A minute later a tall nondescript shinobi with long brown hair, brown eyes, and wearing a chunin's vest walked out of the alley. After looking around slowly to make sure no one was watching he entered the bookstore.

Fifteen minutes later said shinobi exited the store with a large bag full of orange covered books. Whistling to him self the ninja slowly walked off down the street towards the apartment district.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto sat in shock in his apartment. He was very glad he had asked the probes to stop shadowing him and to leave him his privacy in his apartment a year ago. He did not think that Tifa ne-san or Aerith ne-san would approve of what he was doing.

Spread out on the floor before Naruto was the entire set of Icha Icha Paradise. All twenty orange volumes of it, including the five special edition illustrated volumes. Naruto was currently staring at the open pages of the first special edition in shock. After a few moments he came to a conclusion, which he voiced aloud.

"All shinobi are perverts."

That day Uzumaki Naruto began down the path to developing the first of his original techniques, what would one day be known as a veritable Kage Killer.

* * *

Another year passed, and on Naruto's tenth birthday the blond boy, who had been growing quite steadily thanks to his intense exercise regime and improved diet (he only ate ramen once a week, much as it pained him to give it up), received several gifts.

The first was from the Hokage, who had found time to slip away from the festivities of the Kyuubi Day festival and had arrived to find the AIs throwing Naruto a smashing party. It was a black wooden box, plain and with no adornments. At first Naruto wondered what it could be. When Naruto opened it though his eyes widened, as did those of several of the AIs.

The inside of the box was soft velvet, with six circular slots. Within one of these slots rested a crystalline sphere, glowing faintly. Naruto's gasp of surprise as he saw the Materia and the wide genuine smile that followed brought a smile to the Hokage's face. As Naruto leapt at the Hokage in a hug the gathered entities took a closer look at the box in the little boy's hands. They couldn't tell for sure what Materia he had just received, but what was clear was that set within the box was a Blue Support Materia.

Naruto's second gift was a surprise from Cloud, Tifa, and Cid. Cid had been studying the projection technology his creator had developed, and after numerous failed experiments, had found a method to fully manifest a single AI for a short time. It was not very viable though as it required at least twelve drones working in concert to produce a solid enough body and maintain it, and it would drain so much power that it could only be used for about an hour a day.

Naruto still thought it was awesome, because of the trio's third gift to him. Tifa informed Naruto that his physical training would be taken from simply exercising and moving through katas to actually teaching him some unarmed combat. On top of her own unarmed combat style, and the techniques that Vincent was going to teach him, she informed Naruto that she had been observing and studying the training of various shinobi for the past several years, and had gathered an understanding of various Konoha styles of taijutsu that she was going to use to help Naruto develop a style all his own.

Cloud and Barret's gifts he thought were even cooler. The older blond man motioned towards the Hokage and with a smile the old man produced a pair of sealing scrolls. He set them both down on the table and with a puff of smoke the scrolls were obscured as a pair of weapons appeared on the table.

The first was a large zanbatou with a pair of linked Materia sockets in it. Naruto recognized it instantly as looking similar to the one Cloud always carried with him. Just, miniaturized to match Naruto's frame.

The second was a large pole arm like Cid sometimes carried around. Again, it had been redesigned to be smaller to fit Naruto's stature, but it possessed only a single Materia socket.

[These are your training weapons kid]

[They will serve you well for the next several years]

[When you achieve closer to your full growth]

[We have something even better waiting for you]

Naruto was nearly bouncing off the walls with excitement as he ran over to examine the weapons carefully.

"Just remember Naruto." The Hokage spoke calmly with a smile on his face. "You need to keep your training secret. You've done admirably so far, and although your grades could use improvement I do understand why you keep them so low. But I don't want you using these weapons outside of your training ground."

Sarutobi paused, a serious look taking over his face.

"Now, I've been lead to understand that your instructors have some blank capsules of the sort they used to carry equipment here. They are going to give you a capsule to carry each of your weapons in, along with other gear you might have from them. Just be careful to not let anyone get suspicious. This edge you desire to keep to yourself until you are ready to wield it is going to very tempting for you to use, but you must refrain no matter what the reason."

Naruto looked up at the Hokage with a mixture of unhappiness and understanding on his face.

"You don't have to remind me, Jiji. You aren't the one everyone seems to hate. The only time I ever learn anything is here anyways. Why would I jeopardize my ability to learn techniques and skills that are unique?"

The Hokage didn't have a good answer to that. As he watched the boy go back to reverently running his fingers across his new weapons Hiruzen Sarutobi had to wonder. Was he doing the right thing by letting these strangers from the past teach the child?

In the end, only Kami knows the answer to that question.

* * *

"Itai…" Naruto muttered as he flinched involuntarily from the alcohol swab Aerith ne-san was rubbing his forehead with.

[I swear Naruto]

[For a shinobi who is as resistant to damage as you are]

[You sure are a big baby when it comes to pain]

"You're not the one with acid being poured into your veins!" He cried back just before a second swab caused him to cringe again.

[You're right]

[And that's because I'm not the one]

[Chasing after a psycho girl with no interest in me]

"Hey take that back! Sakura isn't psycho! She's just…well…um…" Naruto's voice trailed off as he tried to think of a way to defend the girl he was in love with.

Aerith giggled. No matter what any of them did, they just couldn't convince their young charge that she wasn't right for him. Oh well, he'd learn eventually. He always did.

Aerith giggled again as she remembered the time they had finally broken him of the love of that obnoxious shade of orange, and the much more suitable clothes they got him to wear underneath his orange disguise. She and the others even had an outfit picked out for him when he reached his full growth, or at least close to it, but they were keeping that hidden as a surprise.

[Whatever you say Naruto]

[Whatever you say]

* * *

"Ok class, starting today I will be your instructor. My name is Umino Iruka. It's my pleasure to meet all of you."

The scarred chunin shuffled a few papers before looking up at his class.

"Now sit down and shut up."

In the back of the classroom an eleven year-old Naruto wasn't really paying much attention. One new teacher was the same as the last one in his book. They ignored his requests for help or his questions, yelled at him if he pulled pranks, and other wise ignored his existence or shot him angry looks.

Naruto wouldn't last another hour before Umino Iruka would change the opinion Naruto had of him. The man might have gone harder on him than any teacher had with detention before, but as he set Naruto to scrubbing the front of the classroom clean of paint late that afternoon Naruto grinned. Someone had acknowledged his existence, even if it was only to properly discipline him for pulling a prank. Over the next year Naruto's pranking skills would go from being simple rumor to Konoha legend.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto slunk from the Academy Building in dejection. It was October fifteenth, a mere five days after his twelfth birthday, and he had failed the Genin examinations once again. The previous two he could at least accept, as he had pressured Jiji to let him take them early. The old man had only acquiesced because he felt that Naruto would better be able to fulfill his specialized training once he was a genin than he could while attending the academy…and because it got Naruto to quite bugging him about it. But to fail a third time, when he was the appropriate age. Naruto just sat on the swing in the corner of the school yard and hung his head in dejection.

The blond boy had his eyes to the ground and didn't even notice the whispers or looks the adults were shooting him. Had he been listening to anything other than the sound of the wind and the faint whispers of unseen voices it brought to his ears then he might have heard them muttering about being glad that the 'demon' hadn't been aloud to pass and become a shinobi. If his eyes had been focused on anything but a single shoot of a plant trying to grow in the shade of the tree then he might have seen a young, pale eyed girl with dark purple hair hiding behind the edge of the building and watching him with sad eyes. Had his ability to sense the flow of Mako in the natural world around him been tuned to anything but the small lizard walking across the ground between his feet then he would have noticed the odd emptiness in the tree above where a silver haired shinobi crouched, watching him with a thoughtfull look.

After a few moments the shinobi nodded and shunshined away.

_The boy will work perfectly._ Mizuki thought as he reappeared in his office, just moments before Iruka poked his head in looking for him to ask if he wanted to get dinner with the rest of the teachers.

Mizuki waved the man off, claiming he had stuff to do.

_Oh yes, most important stuff indeed._

Mizuki gathered a few papers and then calmly exited the room, intent on finding Naruto and informing him about a 'special' make up test.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto crept silently into the Hokage's office. Even in his bright orange coat and jacket he had managed to slip unseen past no fewer than six chunin, four jounin, and two ANBU to get into the Hokage's office. Luckily the old man was no where to be seen, so the blond haired boy crept quietly over to a hanging painting.

Carefully he slid the painting aside, and sure enough there was the door to a small safe, with a numerical lock keypad on it. Naruto grinned.

_A simple 4-digit access code. This is a piece of cake._ He thought with a grin.

Naruto reached into one of the deep pockets of his jacket and slipped out a small metal rod. It was about four inches in length, and had been a gift from Cid and Vincent on his twelfth birthday after he successfully cracked a much harder lock than the one that now sat before him.

Gingerly Naruto slid the tip of the rod underneath the key panel and tapped lightly. After several tries and listening closely he apparently heard what he was looking for, as he pushed the rod firmly against the panel and pressed a small button on the other end.

Lights began flashing on the key panel and the numbers began to rapidly scroll through the options. Slowly, one after another, the four digits locked until finally all four had been found. As soon as the fourth digit locked there was a cranking sound and the door swung open.

Naruto resisted the urge to cheer as he fully opened the door and reached in, pulling out the scroll that Mizuki sensei had told him about. Naruto strapped it to his back and then closed and relocked the door, sliding the painting back into place as he stepped back.

BUMP

Naruto spun to find him self more or less face to face with Jiji.

Sarutobi's eyes widened as he suddenly recognized the scroll on Naruto's back. His pipe fell from his mouth as he began to speak.

"Naruto, what are you doing with tha-"

Hiruzen Sarutobi never got a chance to complete his sentence as a panicked Naruto flipped his hands through some hand seals and let out a cry of "Oiroke no Jutsu" before he vanished in a puff of smoke.

Uzumaki Naruto was replaced by a tall, extremely buxom blond with long flowing blond hair pulled back in two ponytails and her privates covered only by tiny whisps of chakra smoke that refused to dissipate. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage and strongest shinobi in the village, known as "The Professor" and "The God of All Shinobi", was blown backwards by a fountain of blood that spewed forth from his nose.

Moments later Naruto dropped the transformation and grinned widely before slipping out the window and heading for the forests on the edge of the city proper. Mizuki had told him to go train at a spot in the woods near a small wooden hut if he wanted to pass the make up test.

* * *

Umino Iruka heard the sound of a jutsu being dropped and Naruto's loud cry of "Yatta!" as he sped through the woods. Leaping into the small clearing near the wooden hut ahead he landed in a crouch just in front of Naruto, who was sitting on the ground with the missing Forbidden Scroll on his back and looking at the ground.

"I've found you." Iruka said as he caught his breath.

Naruto looked up with a frown which quickly became a grin.

"Darn, and I only had time to learn two techniques. Ne, ne, you'll let me graduate if I demonstrate at least one technique on this scroll, right? That's what Mizuki told me." Iruka could hear the honesty and the earnestness in Naruto's voice, but when he mentioned Mizuki Iruka tensed up.

_Mizuki?_

Iruka barely had time to push Naruto out of the way and bring his arms up to shield his own body before a storm of kunai impacted with him, slamming and pinning him against the side of the hut.

"Nice job finding the moron." Naruto heard Mizuki's voice ring out from the forest.

Naruto promptly caught sight of the silver-haired chunin. If this hadn't been Naruto's first real combat situation (training with the AIs didn't count, as they were careful to never take things too far with him) then he would have glowered at the man for calling him a moron. But it was in fact Naruto's first time, and the adrenaline rush to his brain was triggering a reaction of pure fear.

"I see, so that's what's going on." Iruka replied as he gingerly pulled a kunai out of his arm.

"Naruto, give me the scroll." Mizuki shouted down at the blond boy.

Naruto was too scared to do anything, looking towards Iruka for guidance.

"Don't give him the scroll Naruto, even if you have to die to protect it! That scroll is filled with Kinjutsus, jutsus which have been forbidden and ordered sealed by the four Hokages." Iruka yelled at Naruto as he struggled to pull out another kunai.

Mizuki chuckled and looked down at Naruto.

Na-ru-to, there's no point in you having it. I'll tell you the truth." Mizuki began, ignoring Iruka's cry of "No, don't". "Twelve years ago, you know about the demon fox Kyuubi being sealed, right?"

Naruto looked up at Mizuki in confusion. What did the Kyuubi no Kitsune have to do with what was going on here?

"Since that day, a special rule was created for this village. But this rule was never meant to be told to you."

Mizuki chuckled at the open shock and confusion on Naruto's face.

"The rule is that nobody is allowed to talk about the fact that you are the Kyuubi no Kitsune."

"W-what? What do you mean?" Naruto asked softly, his system in shock.

"STOP IT!!!!" Iruka cried out desperately.

"It means that you are the demon fox that killed Iruka's parents and destroyed the village. You were sealed up by the Hokage you admire," Mizuki continued, ignoring Iruka's continued cries to stop. "And you have been lied to by everyone. Didn't you find it odd how everyone hates you? Iruka is the same!! He also hates you!!"

Naruto collapsed in fear and shock, only peripherally hearing Mizuki's continued rant of how the same scroll he carried was used to seal him. He was only shocked out of it by a sudden gasp of pain and a splash of blood on his cheek. Naruto looked up to find Iruka on his hands and knees over him, a massive fuma shuriken lodged in his back and blood coming out of his mouth.

"Why?" Naruto asked, such a simple and innocent question with so much meaning behind it.

As Iruka explained about how he felt after his parents were killed, leaving him an orphan and in so much ain and loneliness, tears began to fall from his eyes.

"And Naruto, you also must have been in so much pain. I'm sorry Naruto, if I only did a better job, you wouldn't have to feel like this." Iruka said, his tear filled eyes staring down into Naruto's wide shocked eyes.

Back in his tree Mizuki ground his teeth in frustration at Iruka's interference. Suddenly Naruto took off into the forest as fast as he could, leaving the two shinobi behind. Mizuki taunted Iruka once more and took off into the forest. He henged into Iruka immediately, and concealed a small smile when he caught up with Naruto a minute later.

"Naruto, we need to hurry, Mizuki is after you."

Naruto just smirked and tossed a pair of kunai at Iruka, knocking him to the ground before collapsing himself against a tree.

"Why Naruto? How did you know I wasn't Iruka?" Mizuki asked as he dropped the illusion

Naruto just chuckled and then vanished in a puff of smoke to reveal Iruka. "Because I'm Iruka!!"

"Hehehe, you'd even transform into what killed your parents to protect him." Mizuki taunted.

"I'll never hand the scroll over to the likes of you!!" Iruka shot back.

"You idiot! Naruto and I are the same! With the skills on that scroll we can do whatever we want! There's no way that demon fox wouldn't try to use the power of the scroll, unlike what you're assuming." Mizuki yelled.

"Yeah…" Iruka replied quietly.

Neither shinobi was aware that the blond they were discussing was sitting behind one of the trees near where they were, observing them from his hiding spot.

_I knew it…see…even Iruka sensei, deep down, doesn't acknowledge me._ Naruto thought dejectedly as he sat with his back to the tree, huggin the huge scroll to his chest.

"The demon fox would do that, but Naruto is different, he is…I've acknowledged him as one of my excellent students." Iruka continued unaware of the open shock on the face of the young boy hiding nearby. "He may not be the hardest worker, and he may be clumsy and no one accepts him. But he knows what it is to feel pain in your heart. He isn't the demon fox, he is a member of Konohagakure. He is Uzumaki Naruto!!"

Mizuki ground his teeth.

"Well, whatever. Iruka, I know I said I'd take care of you later, but I've changed my mind." Mizuki said angrily as he pulled his remaining fuma shuriken from his back. "HURRY UP AND DIE!!!"

Mizuki began to spin the shuriken so fast around his hand you could barely see it and he sped towards Iruka, his eyes wide with psychotic excitement as he prepared to gut the man who he had once called friend. Iruka had resigned himself to his death when a sudden blond blur interspersed itself between him and Mizuki.

With a swift kick to the stomach Naruto sent Mizuki flying backwards as he crouched down, allowing the spinning fuma shuriken to fly off harmlessly and stick itself into the trunk of a tree.

"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!!" Mizuki screamed as he got back to his feet.

Mizuki was greeted with the sight of Uzumaki Naruto standing with one hand on top of the scroll, his eyes narrowed towards the blond chunin turned traitor.

"Don't touch Iruka sensei!! I'LL KILL YOU!!!!" Naruto practically growled out.

"HAHA, I'LL KILL SOMEONE LIKE YOU IN ONE SHOT!!" Mizuki continued to scream as he prepared to attack.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and brought his hands together in a distinctive cross-shaped seal.

"TRY IT TRASH!! I'LL RETURN THE PAIN A THOUSAND TIMES OVER!!"

"THEN DO IT DEMON FOX!!" Mizuki screamed once again, his throat already becoming hoarse.

"TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!!!!!!!!" Naruto screamed into the night.

The forest all around them was filled with smoke and a few seconds later it cleared to reveal literally hundreds of blond haired, blue eyed, orange garbed shinobi surrounding Mizuki.

The original looked him straight in the eye and spoke a single word.

"Run."

As Mizuki stared in shock and fear at the nearly two thousand fists descending towards him a single thought ran through his brain.

_Naruto was never this good in class…_

Mizuki passed out from the pain of his beat down long before the clones were finished with him.

Iruka looked on proudly as Naruto dismissed the clones and turned to smile at him, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Ne, sensei. I guess I went a bit overboard on him, ne?"

Iruka chuckled.

"Naruto, come over here and close your eyes."

Naruto blinked in confusion but complied. He felt Iruka pull off his goggles and then felt him tying something in their place on his forehead.

"Ok Naruto, you can open your eyes now."

Naruto opened his eyes and was greeted with the sight of Iruka standing smiling before him…sans his hitai-ate.

"Congratulations on graduating! Let's celebrate!! I'll buy you…a bowl of ramen!!"

Iruka was prevented from finishing as he was suddenly bowled over by the blond shinobi who had embraced him in a massive hug.

"Calm down, calm down Naruto. We still have to report to the Hokage first. But then I promise, I'll buy you a bowl at that place you always like." Iruka said as he rubbed Naruto's head.

Naruto's massive smile remained on his face all the way back to the Hokage's office.

* * *

"Now Naruto, I can't fault you for trusting a superior shinobi implicitly, that is the reason you aren't being tried with treason for stealing the scroll. But I do want you to be more careful in the future. If you think a superior is being untrustworthy, simply continue to follow their orders while also reporting your suspicions to me. Is that understood?"

Naruto nodded solemnly where he stood next to Iruka. The brown haired chunin chuckled as he realized that Naruto was just anxious to get to his ramen.

"Now, that said, I have a gift for you. I've had it for two years already, but I've been waiting for you to actually graduate before giving it to you."

The Hokage walked over to his desk and withdrew a small, unadorned black-velvet bag. Naruto watched in anxious anticipation as the Hokage walked back around the table holding the box gingerly. He sent a serious look at Iruka.

"Iruka, what I am about to reveal to you is an S-Rank secret. You are not to repeat it or speak of it within the hearing of anyone save Naruto or my self. Is that understood?"

Iruka stood up straighter and even smiled a bit when he noticed that Naruto was grinning up at him.

"Understood Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi nodded in acknowledgement.

"Very well. Uzumaki Naruto has been receiving special training. The details are his and his alone to share, if he ever feels comfortable doing so. Needless to say, many of his scores during the Academy have been faked, but his knowledge and true skills are quite real. One of his abilities is to utilize special rare chakra-reactive gems to perform techniques very similar to jutsus."

At this point the Hokage held out the bag to Naruto, who took it carefully and untied the strings holding the end closed. When he opened the bag his eyes widened in shock and surprise and he looked up at the Hokage as if he couldn't believe what he had just been given.

"Yes Naruto, those are for you. They were spoils from the last war with Iwa, brought back by the Yondaime Hokage him self. I thought that it was fitting for you to receive them."

Iruka looked into the bag slightly confused. All he saw were three large crystalline spheres, none pure or free of defects. One was red and the other two were both purple.

"Um, Hokage-sama, I'm sorry for interrupting, but what exactly are those?"

Sarutobi smirked and glanced down at Naruto, indicating that he should explain. Naruto's grin widened.

"Ne, sensei, these are what I'm really good at using. Unlike the Bunshin Jutsu which I really can't see to perform they use my chakra in a different manner. My teachers call them Materia."

Iruka was no slouch in the intellect department, and he certainly caught the plural when Naruto mentioned teachers.

_Just how much specialized training has this boy been receiving? And why has it been kept secret?_

"Now put them away Naruto and you two may leave. I believe you have some ramen to eat, no?"

Naruto was gone before Sarutobi had even finished his sentence, dragging a bewildered Iruka behind him. Sarutobi chuckled and returned to his desk. He took out an unfinished letter he had been working on and quickly completed it and signed it, closing it and sealing the envelope with his seal. He summoned a Chunin and handed him the letter.

"Take this to Jiraiya of the Sannin. He is currently near the border with Wind Country. Ask one of our agents there and they will direct you on how to contact him. This is a B-Rank mission, now go quickly."

The nondescript chunin bowed and then shunshined away, off to gather his equipment and supplies before exiting the village at full speed. When the Hokage gives you a B-Rank mission to be a courier to one of the Legendary Sannin, you didn't waste time.

* * *

An hour later found an exhausted Uzumaki Naruto collapsing onto his bed in the corner of his 'hideout'. After the events of the day he just hadn't felt safe staying at his apartment, so he sought out one of the few places he had utter comfort, and the only one he could truly relax in. Grinning widely Naruto pulled out a black wooden box he had hidden in a compartment under the mattress and set it on the small table next to the bed, opening the lid carefully. Inside three crystalline spheres glowed faintly, invitingly. Naruto carefully pulled the black velvet bag out of his pack and carefully deposited both stones.

Jiji had said that he had until Friday to get his picture taken for his shinobi ID, as team assignments would be given out back at the Academy on Friday morning. That meant that Naruto had all of Thursday to learn what each of his new Materia could do. He couldn't wait.

Naruto arranged his stones carefully and put the box away. As soon as it was secure he said a small prayer to Kami before lying down and promptly falling asleep.

Within the computer matrix of the house Naruto's ten instructors, who had become like a big, awkward, funky family to him, watched and smiled as the child they viewed as their own slept peacefully. Once they were sure he was asleep, a drone shimmered into view and carefully hovered over the boy, it's scanning beam passing through and to the box below.

By morning his teachers would have a good idea what to expect from the new Materia the next day.

* * *

Naruto awoke the next day eager and excited. After a quick breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, something that Cloud surprisingly had taught him to cook, Naruto got up, got dressed, and walked outside. He had his black box and his golden bracer, which fit him much better now than when he had first received it from his instructors, and he was going to test those Materia out.

He had paid very close attention during his lessons on Materia theory, so he knew that the two purple spheres were so-called Independent Materia. The third sphere was the one he needed to be careful about. His instructors had explained that the red spheres were Summon Materia, which not only took a lot of energy out of the user, but also summoned creatures of great power, whose eccentricities were directly related to their power.

[So child of the Planet, are you ready to meet your first Materia summon?]

Naruto turned to find Cloud walking alongside him. Naruto had long ago learned not to be surprised when one of his teachers popped up unexpectedly like that. It just seemed to be in their nature.

"Yup. Do you have any idea what kind it might be?"

Cloud shook his head.

[I do not]

[Scanning analysis revealed similarities to one]

[On record from our world]

[But we cannot be certain]

[You will merely have to be prepared to fight if the summon]

[Proves problematic]

[For that purpose we have used twelve probes to establish a containment perimeter]

Naruto nodded, understanding that what Cloud really meant was that they had enough probes for him to manifest and deal with the summon him self if it proved violent or dangerous.

[But first we will have you test those other new Materia]

[They will be a lot safer]

Naruto chuckled.

When they finally reached their destination, a beat up clearing that Naruto normally used for demolitions practice with Barret, Naruto put on his bracer and placed both purple Materia into the two slots ready to receive them. Sighing, Naruto took a deep breath and focused on the one in the left socket.

In less than a second a purple glow infused the orb and spread out over his bracer and his entire body, sinking in and vanishing. Naruto looked down at him self. He could see nothing different, couldn't feel anything different. Finally he turned towards Cloud, letting his arm swing out to his side as he did so.

"Hey Cloud, I don't think it's workin-"

CRASH

Naruto and cloud both blinked in surprise as the tree Naruto's hand had just slammed into now had a huge dent in the side of it. Naruto blinked again and looked at Cloud who merely chuckled.

[Well that's one way to identify a Materia]

[That one is what we call a Strength Plus]

[In exchange for drawing on a very tiny amount of your energy]

[It increases your strength by a fair amount]

[Those are useful because once they have become activated they require no further focus]

Naruto nodded and focused on the second purple Materia, willing it to connect with his life force and activate. Naruto was again infused with a purple light, and again he felt no different.

He began to turn towards Cloud again and fell over as he suddenly moved much faster than anticipated. Cloud's chuckles as he got to his feet again were starting to get on Naruto's nerves.

[And there's another way]

[That one is known as a Speed Plus]

[I think you get the general idea of what it does]

Naruto shot Cloud a mock growl and then removed the two spheres from the sockets and placed them carefully back in his box. He very carefully removed the red sphere and placed it into the primary socket on his bracer, grinning in excitement as he did so.

Naruto stood back up and grinned at Cloud when the blond man gave him a thumbs up.

[Go for it kid]

[Just be careful]

Naruto nodded and turned towards the clearing, holding his arm out with his palm open and flat towards the center. Naruto closed his eyes and focused on the Materia. As he focused, he felt his energy begin to build up and flow into the sphere, and he felt the flow of the Planet's Mako around him as the sphere channeled it. The wind carried a light whisper to his ears, and something deep inside connected with it. The word just felt right.

Naruto uttered a single word, light yet strong like ice on the ocean.

"Shiva."

A sudden swirl of ice began to drop from the sky as a circle on the ground grew cold and began to glow blue. Barely a second later ice spewed forth from this circle, as did a spinning blue-skinned woman with long blue hair wearing fairly revealing blue clothes, and a blue crown

The woman opened her eyes and gazed upon Naruto and Cloud. Her eyes widened slightly as her memory was jogged, remembering a world long since gone that her kind had once been connected to. She shook her head to clear it and returned her gaze to the young blond child, the one who had summoned her. She saw how he gazed upon her with awe, reverence, and a huge smile.

"Yatta!" The boy suddenly exclaimed pumping his fist in the air in his excitement. "I di-itai!"

Shiva floated back after delivering a punch straight to the top of Naruto's head.

"That's what thou get for behaving inappropriately, child. Now tell me, why hast thou summoned me here?"

Naruto blinked and smiled back up at the woman before surprisingly bowing.

"Forgive me. I received a Summon Materia as a gift yesterday, and I only desired to speak with the one who was connected to it. Forgive me for not introducing my self immediately. I am Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto looked up with a grin on his face. "And one day, I'm going to be the Hokage of Konohagakure."

Shiva blinked and looked down at the child. She could feel that he had a good heart, pure and while it carried the taint of one who had been mistreated, she could detect none of the evil that would normally have dwelt in such a heart. She was amazed that he could remain such a pure child, especially with what the fate lines read to her about his destiny. She would just have to make sure he stayed that way.

"Greetings, Child of the Planet. It has been far too long since I have been summoned. Nearly a thousand of your years since I last spoke to anyone outside of my own realm. My name, is Shiva, and I am the Goddess of Ice and Fate."

* * *

AN: So, here it is, at long last, a new chapter for my faithful readers. It would have been out sooner except for a couple of things. One, I decided to finish editing and put up a chapter of a new fic. Two, I had originally decided to dedicate my writing to finishing the entire preliminaries of the Chunin Exams for "Phoenix Rising" before continuing work on this or Golden Viper. Three, when that failed because I got the inspiration to get started on this chapter, the inspiration just wouldn't leave me alone. Thus, what you receive now is the equivalent of over three chapters at what I had originally planned to be the normal chapter length for this story.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, despite it being nearly six years in compression. I did my best to demonstrate most, if not all, of what the AIs were teaching Naruto, as well as to present the Materia that he has received by this point. I've also tried to create an origin for the Oiroke no Jutsu, as well as create an explanation for my own story as to why Naruto will later show him self to be quite familiar with Icha Icha. And of course, there is that second scroll Naruto learned off of the Forbidden Scroll. You'll just have to wait and see to find out what he learned.

Next chapter, obviously, Naruto will meet his new team, and their pervert sensei will put them through the ringer with their true genin test. As always, please Read and Review. Every review tells me someone has been reading, and reviews always brighten my day and give me encouragement to keep on working. Jaa ne.

PS: I decided to give Itachi a pet in this story. Don't ask why, how, or what, or even if it will survive for long. First three people to send me a PM with a correct guess as to why I named the chapter the way I did AND leaves a signed review reminding me that they guessed (this is both in case I misplace the pms and so I can more easily determine order I received them) gets to suggest a name for it. I will choose my favorite out of the three. Good luck!

**Review Responses** – Yawn, it's 1:30 AM and I'm still making sure this gets done. And I wrote 10000 words of story today too. (You heard me, I wrote this entire thing TODAY)

OBSERVER01 – Unfortunately no. Not that I wouldn't consider it, but, I already set in stone the AI compliment of the vessel. Don't worry, they may appear at some point in the story in some form though.

Moonfal – haha, well, as always it's great to hear from you, and I'm glad my timing worked as well. I hope you did well on your bio exam. If you don't mind my asking, was it basic biology or a more advanced course? Anyways, here's hoping that this triple sized monstrosity arrives at a perfect time for you as well.

As always, happy to hear from you.

-ZI

Challenger – I'm actually well versed on all the girls except for the 60+ episodes of filler at the end of the first series. But no, this is not going to be a harem story. Naruto will have relationships and relationships with at least two women, and there will be something off and on with one even after he has settled down with another, but his relationship, both romantic/sexual and friendship with people are important, and his romantic/sexual relationships are part of a counterpoint to his earlier experiences while on Team 7 (duh duh duh foreshadowing that things are gonna go to crap with that). Thanks for the review and massive list of suggestions though. As to the Naruto Wiki, I use it regularly for fact checking and looking up information, It's a great resource, especially when I forget stuff.

Silver Water 7 – There will be other characters, to lesser degrees, that are similar to him. Remember, he was chosen as the BEST candidate, not the ONLY candidate. As to him being with someone, I have a very concrete plan for him in mind now, one formulated after finishing the previous chapter. And the girl he ultimately settles down with will be a good match for him, and a counterpoint to his previous love interest (read: violent psycho Sasuke-loving bitch who never sees him for what he is). She actually appreciates him for what he is, everything that he is, and loves him with all her heart. And no, I won't spoil the surprise.

Animegamemaster6 – It's a pleasure to meet another fan of his works. He was actually one of the fanfic authors whose stories finally gave me the encouragement to just start on my projects and start putting them out there. I may not have the same following he does, but I also have far less time publishing here and far fewer stories than he does. Haha. As you can see, I have presented the method by which they teach Naruto sword fighting. This was part of the idea I had from the moment I created the 'hologram' manifestations. No Sephiroth will not appear, as will no other FF baddies. As to the weapons, he has learned to use several weapons that I have shown you, and a couple more that won't appear til later. Here's a hint though. Vincent may not have been able to give him a gun, but the dude could still teach him to use ranged weapons. Composite recurved longbow anyone?

Uncle Joe – Thank you.

Trife – Why thank you Trife. I'm sorry this update wasn't as soon as you were probably hoping for, but in my defense I've been busy, working on other projects, and I just wrote a ten thousand word chapter for this in a single day. And remember, my normal planned length for these chapters was supposed to be 2-3k words. Meaning this is 3-5 chapters rolled into one.

-ZI

Bobboky – **grins** Or the sword is the shield and its just in the shape of a sword. Remember that.

Zeynel – That was put in while I was still not 100% sure what I was going to do with it, but I wanted to lay the groundwork regardless of which path I took. After I finished the chapter and uploaded I was speaking with my best friend for a while and he helped me bring my idea with regards to Itachi fully together. Needless to say, I do have the idea formulated with regards to him, and at some point prior to the end of the 'time skip' he will cease to be a member of Akatsuki. For what reason and what state he is in I won't spoil yet though.

Johnny-on-the-spot – Why thank you. I've put a lot of work into this trying to keep it original while at the same time having it flow as I would expect the story to have flowed if these changes had been introduced.

Akira Stridder – Only 'kinda cool'? Man, I better get my act together then. Hopefully this chapter has rated more than just 'kinda cool' ^_^

Kyuubi's Masamune – Your penname is making me chuckle.

Wiccachic2000 – Here you are. Consider it a late thanksgiving present that its so big. For the real thanksgiving present I gave my fans go read "Phoenix Rising". I put an awesome chocolate cake recipe in there. My own personal modifications to an already great cake.

Lord Ezra'eil – Haha, thanks for the hints, but no, that won't happen. Once someone has died and entered the lifestream they remain there as a spirit, they can't be fully reborn, although it is clear that some retain full consciousness. As to the AIs, they may have all the memories and what not, but ultimately they are artificial constructs. They have no life to reinstated in a body in the first place.

Anihilation – I'm sorry to disappoint, but Sakura won't be redeemed form being a Sasuke fan girl too much. She will one day realized what a fucking idiot she was to have treated Naruto the way she did when she could have had him as her own. And what do you mean the other 19? The probes are merely communication modules for the AIs, essentially. And the twenty probes were sent to analyze and determine the best single candidate. That being Naruto.

Anyways, I'll work on keeping the good work up, and sorry that Sakura is a fan girl in this fic, but it is necessary. A large part of Naruto's LATER team is a counterpoint to his experience while on Team 7.

-ZI

Anihilation – Hehe, before you get confused, my review response system is simple. I respond to the oldest review that I haven't responded to yet and go in order to the newest. When someone reviews multiple chapters in a row, I respond to each review in order and separately. Like I said, just so you don't get confused.

Anyways, yup their planet was destroyed, and they are indeed grooming Naruto to one day prevent his world from making their mistakes. Again, there aren't 19 others.

-ZI

Anihilation – Yep, you'll see, far along the path. Needless to say there will be hints of it when Itachi shows up for the first time or two. I hope you enjoyed reading about his training in this chapter. I really only gave a brief overview of it, and I have specifically left out details of certain aspects of it. Don't worry, they'll get filled in eventually.

Until next time, Jaa ne.

-ZI

Kammari – Thank you. I hope you liked this one as well.

Chm01 – Now that would be telling, since it's so far along and its so important to character development. All I'll say is it's not someone from Konoha.

YYonder – Thank you. It's reassuring to get as much of a response to this story as I already have. It's reaffirmed to me that deciding to write this and put it up was a good decision.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I wish I owned these series. Then I could make people make this into a manga for all of you fine folks to read. Maybe a never ending anime and a series of video games as well.

* * *

Chapter 5: Why You Never Kid a Kidder

Naruto collapsed exhausted onto one of the stools in Ichiraku's, waving a hand to indicate he'd like a bowl of ramen and didn't much care which flavor.

Today had certainly been interesting for the blond prankster. First he had met a being claiming to be a goddess. She had stood on ceremony to an extreme degree, smacking Naruto upside the head every time he spoke out of turn or acted disgracefully, but he had felt oddly calmed in her presence. She had finally promised to aid him should he ever need her, and promised to watch over him from her realm.

Then he had gone to turn in his ninja ID and met the Hokage's grandson, and pervert who was teaching him. Naruto wasn't quite sure how, but somehow he had earned a follower by the end of those events, and passed on his Oiroke no Jutsu. Konohamaru had deemed it a Kage Killer, and wouldn't shut up until he convinced Naruto to teach him it. The blond had thus spent most of the afternoon teaching the gaki how to use the technique. He hadn't quite perfected it, but the brat was close enough to trigger a bloody nose from Ebisu, if not a full on knockout.

Third, as he had been escaping from Ebisu and making his way to his favorite dinner spot he had encountered a drunk off-duty ANBU who had seen his hitai-ate and thought he must have stolen it, having obviously heard of Naruto's failure of the examination. Needless to say, Naruto had had to avoid the attacks from the drunk man, since none of the civilians or off-duty shinobi seemed willing to do anything, until he could lead the bastard into one of the generally unused alleyways. Needless to say, utilizing Kage Bunshin to beat the crap out of the man before leaving him with a note accusing him of treason (after all, he did call Naruto demon and as Naruto understood it, that certainly fell within the purview of the Sandaime's law) had left him pretty exhausted and sullen.

"Hey Naruto, are you okay?" Ayame asked, drawing Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, um, yeah. Just had a bad afternoon is all. The rest of the day was pretty okay." Naruto replied, looking up as Old Man Ichiraku's daughter placed his ramen before him. "I guess I'm just pretty nervous about tomorrow. You know how I always tell you about how I'm not really liked by my classmates?"

Ayame nodded her head, a sad look in her eyes. It always hurt her to see how most of the villagers, including children his own age, seemed to ostracize the boy. She was amazed that he almost always seemed to have a smile, no matter what had happened.

"Well, tomorrow they assign us onto teams, and I guess I never really thought of it before, but that means I'm going to have to be working closely with people who don't really like me. I mean, sure Kiba has joined in on some of my pranks before, and Chouji and Shikamaru let me hang with them at lunch occasionally, but none of them really like to have me around. I guess, I was just so driven to become a ninja so that I could become Hokage someday."

Naruto sighed and dug into his ramen. On the other side of the counter both Ayame and Ichiraku frowned. No one should have to live life as alone as Naruto did. At least the boy recognized that they were there for him.

* * *

The next morning saw one overly cheerful blond haired prankster sitting near the back of his classroom chuckling to himself. He was hunched over his desk and was wearing his hitai-ate proudly. He just pointed at his forehead protector whenever anyone challenged his right to be there, and otherwise basked in the realization that all of this was real, that he had finally become a shinobi of the leaf.

Suddenly Naruto's face lit up with a goofy grin as Haruno Sakura showed up, wearing her usual red battle-dress.

"NARUTO!! MOVE YOUR ASS!! I WANT TO SIT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF YOU!!" She suddenly yelled at Naruto.

Naruto's confusion lasted only long enough to turn his head, at which point a frown promptly plastered itself on his face.

_Oh. She only wants to sit next to the teme. I should have known._

Obviously he still hadn't learned that Sakura just wasn't right for him, but he would. It was just taking him time. After all, we've all been in denial when it came to love, right?

Sighing Naruto stood and let Sakura past, ignoring the laughter of those who had noticed his looks towards the pink-haired girl and the curses of those girls who had been eyeing the seat between him and Sasuke as well. As soon as she was past him Naruto sat back down and leant his head on his desk. Blocking out everything around him he closed his eyes and began to go through forms in his mind, reviewing the latest unarmed combat form Vincent and Yuffie had been practicing with him that weekend.

It was this clear sign that he was beginning to realize that Sakura just wasn't worth it that saved him from a fate worse than death. Somewhere in her icy realm, Shiva was giggling to her self. A single comment made to Naruto at the right moment the day before had managed to save the boy no end of trouble.

Fate, after all, is malleable, as nothing is set in stone. And Fate, to put it bluntly, was Shiva's bitch.

Iruka soon entered and began his speech about how each of the students in the room were now Genin shinobi, and would be placed into three man teams under a Jounin sensei. Naruto kept one ear open, listening to Iruka's speech, while the rest of his mind was busy wondering which of his classmates he would be paired with. He only gave Iruka his full attention when the man began to call out the teams.

Naruto was starting to get bored again when he finally heard a name he cared about.

"Next is Team 7. Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto."

Despite himself Naruto shot up in his chair, letting out an excited cry at being on the same team as his crush. He failed to notice the way Sakura sunk in her seat and looked at her feet at the announcement that the blond baka was on her team.

"And Uchiha Sasuke."

Within seconds Naruto and Sakura's roles were reversed, only this time there was muted muttering from the girls in the class about how Sakura was a lucky bitch. That and Naruto's mind was working along the lines of "fuck, I have to deal with the teme? And I'm not even allowed to use my real abilities yet. Fuck."

As Iruka continued his congratulations speech the wheels in Naruto's mind were already turning, putting together a plan. He would finally find out just how Sakura felt about both him and Sasuke. That should satisfy his instructors' incessant need to urge him away from the girl.

Yes, during lunch Uzumaki Naruto would, one way or the other, put the issue to rest.

* * *

As it was, lunch found Naruto sneaking stealthily along a hallway near where Uchiha Sasuke had chosen to sit on a ledge to eat his lunch. He was being much more careful and displaying more skill than he ever had in class, but he considered this a worthy enough cause to use his abilities. When he was in position he struck.

Before he even knew what had hit him, Uchiha Sasuke had been hogtied and stuck in a closet by an unknown attacker. All he managed to see before the door closed was a whiskered smile and a flash of blond hair.

* * *

Haruno Sakura was sitting on a bench in front of the Academy musing about how much she hated her forehead when she caught sight of Sasuke leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. He was staring at her with his patented smirk on his face. Sakura immediately began to blush and have fantasies of him approaching her and offering to kiss her forehead.

When he actually did a few moments later it left her in a shocked state for a few moments before he laughed.

"Hah, that sounds like something Naruto would say."

Sakura muttered damn and looked down at the ground.

"Sakura, there is something I want to ask you."

Sakura looked up in confusion. "Huh?"

"What do you think of Naruto?"

Sakura remained silent for a few moments before replying darkly.

"He's always getting in the way when I do something important, and he enjoys to see me struggle…Naruto doesn't understand anything about me, he's annoying. All I want is for you to acknowledge me."

Thankfully Sakura was facing away from him, or else she would have seen the look of utter shock on Sasuke's face as Sakura's words echoed around in his mind.

"And I'm absolutely serious about this, I would do anything, because I like you a lot." Sakura turned towards Sasuke, blushing fiercely.

Slowly she leant forward, her eyes close and lips pursed in preparation of kissing Sasuke. Within his mind, thoughts were progressing even though his body was frozen.

_I feel like, I finally understand why I like her…and why she'll never like me._

"I'm sorry Sakura, but I can't." Sasuke said before standing and walking away, leaving a still blushing Sakura figuring he was just shy and wasn't ready to kiss yet.

As soon as he was out of sight 'Sasuke' let the Henge drop, revealing a flushed Naruto who was breathing heavily. Looking around to be sure that no one was watching him, Naruto withdrew an ANBU communicator and hooked it over his ear, sitting against the base of a tree and covering his ears to hide the communicator from anyone who walked past.

"Hey, guys, this is Naruto. I think I could use some support right now."

[Is something wrong Naruto?]

Tifa's voice came over the line.

[Do you need us to bring probes into battle mode?]

Naruto shook his head, even though Tifa couldn't see it.

"No. I've just finally come to accept that the girl I've loved, while so much like me, could never love me. She loves this image she has built up of Sasuke, and there is no way a hated kid like me will ever earn her affection."

Despite all the years of being rejected by those around him, it was being so soundly rejected by the girl he loved that finally broke Naruto's heart. In the safety of a small grove of trees, with the soothing voices of the women he had come to view as mothers and big sisters, Uzumaki Naruto finally began to cry.

* * *

When he returned to class after lunch there was no sign that Naruto had been crying. In fact, there was no sign of any emotion on his face. The usually hyper blond prankster instead sat down with stoicism worthy of Shikamaru and crossed his hands before him, resting his chin on his hands and staring straight forward, but not really seeing what was in front of him.

Within his mind, Uzumaki Naruto was beginning a mental review of everything he had learned, both the suspect material from class that his instructors often had to correct and the material that they had taught him, techniques that he and he alone knew and had mastered. He remembered how to perform his Kage Bunshin, as well as the second technique he had learned from the scroll. He remembered the thrill of wielding his sword, and of practicing with his pole arm. He remembered channeling Mako through his Materia in order to conjure lighting and ice, and he remembered the thrill of power that swept through him when he had summoned Shiva.

When Sasuke returned he shot Naruto a glare before taking his seat silently. He almost went into his normal position before he realized that he would be mimicking Naruto if he did, which irritated him to no end. Sure, he could have told someone about Naruto assailing him, but his Uchiha pride wouldn't allow him to admit to anyone that he had been beaten by 'dead-last' Naruto, even if he had been taken by surprise.

Three hours later the members of Team 7 were still waiting for their sensei to arrive. All the other teams had left, and even Iruka had left to finish off some paperwork. Sasuke was sitting and contemplating his duty as an avenger, and Sakura was sitting nearby shooting him blushing glances every few minutes. Naruto on the other hand had not moved from his position since he had entered the room.

Under other circumstances, he might have pranked their teacher for being so damn late without an explanation, but given the realization he had had forced upon him about Sakura, he simply wasn't in the mood. He was more dedicated than ever to his mental review of his abilities, as he had decided that the only way he could ever possibly earn Sakura's affection was to cease being a bother in her eyes, and then to prove him self stronger than Sasuke.

Even then, he wasn't sure if he could actually earn her affection, but he still had to try.

Hey, I said he was smart. I never said he wasn't as vulnerable to denial as the rest of us.

When the door to the classroom finally slid open Sasuke and Sakura both openly turned and stared at the door as a silver-haired Jounin with his left eye covered by his hitai-ate and the bottom of his face covered by a mask poked his head in and raised a hand in greeting.

"Yo."

Naruto had remained staring straight ahead, but was now tracking this new person with his eyes. Carefully and slowly he flared his nostrils, drawing in the air and analyzing the scent. His sense of smell was nowhere near as acute as that of an Inuzuka, but he now knew that his enhanced senses were thanks to the Kyuubi no Kitsune that he kept locked away in his belly. The scent of this man was familiar, but he couldn't place it. After a moment Naruto simply wrote it off that the man had probably been one of his ANBU guards when he was younger and didn't spare it any more thought.

"You're late." Naruto spoke calmly, shocking Sakura and Sasuke as they hadn't seen or heard anything from him in over three hours.

The Jounin eye-smiled and then replied.

"Sorry. I got lost on the road of life."

Naruto merely maintained his cold gaze a moment longer before standing and approaching the instructor. His out-of-character behavior was confusing the hell out of Sakura and Sasuke, and they wondered if Naruto had somehow been replaced. Naruto stopped in front of the new teacher and held out his hand to shake. The silver-haired Jounin took his hand and then suddenly shook as there was a loud buzzing sound.

Naruto promptly collapsed on the floor, laughing his ass off as Sakura and Sasuke both sweat dropped.

Kakashi stroked his chin and spoke.

"Hmm…how can I say this…? My first impression is…I don't like you guys."

Kakashi turned to exit the room.

"Meet me on the roof in five minutes."

Four and a half minutes later the trio of genin was assembled before their new sensei on the roof of the Academy, their usual looks plastered on their faces.

"Well, let's begin with introducing yourselves. How about your likes, dislikes…your dreams for the future and things like that." Kakashi began, shrugging his shoulders.

"Hey, it's polite to introduce yourself first!" Naruto interrupted.

"Oh…me? Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes, dreams for the future…hmm and I have lots of hobbies…"

"So…all he told us is his name?" Sakura muttered.

"Now it's your turn. Let's start on the right."

Naruto grinned and readjusted his hitai-ate as he began.

"Yosh! My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

_Child of the Planet._

"What I like is ramen."

_Working in my garden._

"What I like even more is when Iruka sensei pays for my ramen."

_Training with my 'family'._

"What I dislike is waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook."

_Sasuke-teme._

Kakashi was busy wondering if all Naruto thought about was ramen.

"And my dream…is to surpass the Hokage and then have the people of this village acknowledge my existence!"

_I see…He's grown in an interesting way._ Kakashi thought.

"Hobbies…pranks I guess."

_Training in skills you could never imagine._

"Next."

Sasuke sat in his usual gloomy pose.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lot's of things I dislike and I don't really like anything. And…I can't really call it a dream…but I have an ambition, the resurrection of my clan and…to kill a certain man."

_Cool_. Sakura thought as she blushed slightly and hugged her knees.

_Like I thought…_ Kakashi thought as his eye narrowed imperceptibly.

_The teme better not mean me…_ Naruto thought darkly, his hands unconsciously clenching, itching to draw his weapons.

"Ok, and lastly the girl." Kakashi said.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. The thing I like is…well the person I like is…"

Sakura looked at Sasuke and blushed, giggling and shaking her head.

"And uhm…my dream for the future…uhm?" Sakura said blushing before letting out a cry of "Oh yeah!!"

"What I dislike…" Sakura continued, frowning and practically growling out her next words. "…is NARUTO."

_Figures_. Naruto thought darkly

Sakura ignored the glum look on Naruto's face and continued.

"My hobby is…" Sakura glanced at Sasuke, blushing and giggling again.

_Girls of this age are more interested in love than ninjutsu._ Kakashi thought as he leant his chin on his hand.

"Ok!! So far the introductions are concluded. Tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi."

"Yeah!! What kind of duties!!?" Naruto cried out excitedly.

Everyone was too busy sweat dropping at his over-the-top cheerfulness to notice that the leaves on several of the trees nearby had grown slightly greener.

"First we are going to do something with just the four of us." Kakashi continued as he crossed his arms.

"What is it?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Survival training." Kakashi said blandly.

Kakashi waited for the three to finish asking their extraneous questions before continuing.

"This isn't any normal training. This time I'm your opponent." Kakashi said, laughing lightly at their confusion. "Well, it's just that, when I tell you this you guys are totally going to freak out. Of the 27 graduates, only 9 will be chosen to become genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over sixty six percent!!"

Naruto had a look of shock on his face, Sakura just looked confused, and Sasuke was even starting to sweat.

"Haha!! I told you that you'd freak out." Kakashi said, laughing.

Naruto crossed his arms across his chest and leant backwards, a faint smirk on his face.

"Then we just have to be the best three then." He said, drawing surprise from both Sasuke and Sakura.

Kakashi raised his eyebrow before continuing. "Anyway, tomorrow you have to show your real skills on the training ground. Bring all the shinobi tools you have. Oh, and skip breakfast. You might throw up."

Kakashi handed out three sheets of paper to the trio of genin. "The details are on this paper, and don't be late tomorrow."

As soon as he had given them the papers Kakashi smiled and vanished in a leaf shunshin. Sakura clenched the paper, worrying about being separated from Sasuke if she failed the test. Sasuke just crumpled his paper up in his hand. Naruto narrowed his eyes.

_So, only nine will pass, huh? Given everything my lessons have taught about teamwork, I'm guessing that this test will pass only three teams, not nine individual genin. I better start thinking on how to work with the teme and Sakura._

Naruto stood and dusted him self off.

"See you tomorrow." He muttered as he stepped forward and much to the surprise of both Sasuke and Sakura leapt off the edge of the building, disappearing over the edge. Sakura ran forward, but by the time she reached the edge Naruto was already on the ground, an orange blur disappearing out the gate of the Academy.

* * *

Naruto spent that night in his hidden sanctum, discussing tactics with his 'family', and deciding what sort equipment to bring. After three hours he finally decided to carry his usual complement of kunai and shuriken on his body, and to carry his special equipment in a bandolier under his jacket, stored in capsules. He wasn't planning to reveal any of those advantages to his teammates or his sensei, but Naruto had vowed to never be unprepared again.

It absolutely pained him to have to appear so weak sometimes, but he knew he wouldn't be safe in a village that hated him until he could defend him self from any attacker.

Carefully Naruto finished storing the last of his gear, his golden bracer, in a capsule and slipped it into a special pouch inside his right sleeve. The capsules really were marvelous technology, but were simply not as effective in battle. Naruto had developed a few tricks to improve his speed should he need to use them in an emergency, but he hadn't fully overcome the inconvenience. Maybe he could find someone he could talk into making some of those special storage seals for him. Then he could keep his weapons close at hand without any difficulty.

Humming lightly to him self, Naruto finished laying out his clothes so he could get to bed early.

* * *

Naruto arrived at the assigned training ground at 8AM exactly the following day. As expected, their instructor was nowhere in sight. Naruto smirked as he caught sight of his two teammates, and promptly chomped down on his last stick of dango, chewing slowly as he walked up.

"Hey guys, how are you doing this morning?"

Sasuke looked up from where he was sitting in his usual pose and glared at Naruto while Sakura only spared him a brief glance before returning to her Sasuke-watching. Sasuke's glare turned to a smirk as the Uchiha noticed that Naruto was eating.

"Hey, dobe. Kakashi said not to eat anything this morning. Do you _want_ to throw up or something?"

Sakura giggled as her Sasuke-kun insulted the baka Naruto. Naruto however just smirked and swallowed the last of his dango.

"Hey, starve your selves if you want, but I'm making sure I've got enough energy for this survival test. Besides, there's no way it could possibly be more intense that some of my flights from ANBU after pulling a prank. We are only newly commissioned genin after all." He said off-handedly as he chose a tree to sit in the shade of.

Leaning back against it with his hands resting behind his head Naruto closed his eyes and phased out the annoyed mutterings of both Sakura and Sasuke. Silently he attuned his senses and listened to the world around him. Hopefully by the time Kakashi arrived he would have a good idea of the layout of the surrounding woods simply from communing with the nature present.

Two hours later Hatake Kakashi strolled lazily into the training ground.

"Hey guys, good morning!" He called out, raising his arm.

"YOU'RE LATE!!!!" Sakura and Sasuke yelled out, Sasuke crossing his arms.

Naruto opened one eye to confirm that Kakashi had really arrived before yawning and standing, taking his time stretching as Kakashi walked over to three wooden posts and set a timer on top of the middle post.

"Ok, it's set for noon. Here are two bells. Your task is to take these from me before the time's up." Kakashi began.

Naruto yawned and basically tuned their sensei out, instead flaring his nostrils and opening his awareness to the flow of the world around him, hoping to get a feel for Kakashi's presence in the flow. When Kakashi mentioned that those who fail to get a bell not only don't pass the exam, but also get no lunch, he smirked.

_So, it seems the instructions not to eat were to leave us hungry and off balance. I'm glad I got in the habit of always eating regular meals. But why are there only two bells? There must be something more to this exam than he is saying_.

When Kakashi mentioned that they wouldn't succeed unless they came at him intending to kill Naruto barred his fangs in a feral grin. Finally an opponent he could unleash a little of his extra training on. No more of that crappy Academy style taijutsu, no sir. Naruto was going to introduce his new and seemingly always late sensei to a little something he liked to call "Panther Fist". He couldn't wait to show the Uchiha up.

"BUT!! YOU'LL BE IN DANGER!!" Sakura cried out.

Naruto winced at how loud her voice was and chuckled.

"You never caught me when you were an ANBU, Kakashi-sensei. What makes you think you can keep away from me now?"

"In the real world, those with no talent often bark the loudest. Well..ignore Mr. Deadlast and start when I say…"

Naruto's eyes narrowed.

_Dead last is it, Kakashi-sensei? You are going to get it now._

Naruto practically growled as he drew a kunai and pulled his arm back, preparing to throw it. It was sloppy and he knew it, and as expected Kakashi vanished in a leaf shunshin and reappeared behind Naruto in a swirl of wind and leaves, grabbing the arm holding the kunai and the back of his head. Sakura and Sasuke were both impressed by how fast Kakashi had moved as he began to speak.

"Calm down…I haven't said start yet. Well, it seems you're finally prepared to come at me with the intent to kill. So you've finally acknowledged me?" Kakashi chuckled. "Hehe, it seems like I'm beginning to like you guys. Ok, let's get going. Ready… BEGIN!!"

All four shinobi leapt away, vanishing into the forest. Kakashi took a spot in the middle of the clearing and waited.

* * *

_Ok, think Naruto. Something is off about this exam, but what is it? Konoha is famous for it's four man cells, even more so for the training cells of a Jounin and three lower-rank shinobi. Iruka said that our teams were chosen to balance our abilities, so there is no point in passing only two out of every three of us. So this test must be…SOMETHING TO SEE IF WE CAN WORK AS A TEAM!!_

Naruto resisted the impulse to yell out in excitement at having figured out was going on. Ever so carefully he brought his hands together in a plus-shaped seal and created a Kage Bunshin. Directing it to stay low and be ready for his plan, Naruto disappeared into the forest.

As soon as he was sure he was in a safe position Naruto sat down for a moment and closed his eyes, reaching out and feeling the flow of the Lifestream in the world around him. Sensing the spots of silence that always surrounded shinobi suppressing their presence Naruto grinned and carefully crept towards the nearest one. Silently he slid through the underbrush and up next to Sakura.

"Ne, Sakura. We need to talk."

Sakura very nearly gave their position away as she hurriedly covered her mouth to prevent her shriek of surprise from getting out.

_How had Naruto gotten slow close without me noticing?_

"I think I've figured out the real purpose of this exam. It's not about the bells, it's about teamwork. The three of us need to work together or we _are_ going to fail this test."

Sakura just blinked and then glared at Naruto.

"Baka. You're just trying to get Sasuke and me to carry you through this exam. Why don't you just fuck off and go fail. Then I can be alone with Sasuke-kun."

Sakura returned her focus to watching Kakashi, not noticing the way Naruto's eyes darkened or the way his fists clenched. Silently Naruto slipped back into the underbrush, heading for the second spot of silence.

"Ne, Sasuke. I've figured out the real purpose of this exam. We need to work as a team, or else we'll all fail. It's not about getting the bells, but about how we work to get them."

To his honor, Uchiha Sasuke let no sign that he had been surprised by how easily Naruto had snuck up on him show.

"What the hell are you talking about dobe?" He muttered, never taking his eyes off of Kakashi.

"Think about it, Sasuke. Kakashi-sensei kept emphasizing the sixty six percent fail rate and that only two of us at most can pass. But these teams were put together to be able to work together. This test has to have an ulterior motive, and I think that's what it is, to test our teamwork. We'd be a liability to Konoha if we aren't able to work together effectively as a team."

"Whatever dobe. Just leave me alone. I'll get one of my bells and pass this stupid test. I don't care whether you or Sakura pass or not. If you don't maybe I'll get given better teammates."

Naruto's eyes darkened further than they had with Sakura and he again moved away silently. He quietly moved around the perimeter of the clearing for the next ten minutes, his hands held in a cross-shaped seal the entire way. When he had finally circumnavigated the entire field he crouched quietly in the shadows and focused all of his attention on Kakashi. Kakashi was standing still in the middle of the field, contemplating how well hidden his students were.

"COME HERE!!! AND FIGHT ME!!"

Sasuke and Sakura both sweat dropped as Naruto stood across the clearing from Sasuke with his arms crossed and loudly declared his presence.

"Uhm…you're a little bit off…" Kakashi said.

_I don't think so, Kakashi-sensei. I'll show you who the dead last really is._

"I SAID, FIGHT ME!!"Naruto yelled out again, his left foot sliding back and his arms coming up as he slid into the first ready stance of Panther Fist.

Naruto paused as he saw Kakashi's hand slip into his pocket.

"Shinobi fighting lesson number 1. Taijutsu. I'll teach you about it."

Naruto's worries that Kakashi was about to bring weapons into play were assuaged as soon as he saw the garish orange cover of the book that Kakashi had just withdrawn from his pouch. Etched across the cover was a title that Naruto knew all too well. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.

_Seems he's already worried._ Kakashi thought, misinterpreting the source of the sweat drop.

"What's wrong? Hurry up and attack me!!" He called out.

"What's with the book?" Naruto asked, never changing his stance.

Quietly he focused on the flow and reached out, sending instructions to the clones he had hidden all around the field.

"I just want to know what happens next. But don't worry, it won't make a difference against you guys."

Naruto blinked and grinned evilly.

"Oh, is that all? Well, I guess it couldn't hurt to tell you what happens next. Maybe then you would take me seriously." Naruto said, his grin deepening as Kakashi looked up in confusion.

Naruto could see worry in the silver-haired Jounin's eyes. Worry that he knew was tied to his threat of spoiling the rest of the book.

"What do you know about this book? It only came out today. There's no way a dobe would know what was in it." Kakashi replied disdainfully, his worry vanishing as he decided that Naruto couldn't possibly know. Not unless the boy had somehow gotten his hands on a copy before release date.

Kakashi instantly had to take back his words as he was forced to spin and block a pair of kicks directed at the back of his head by a pair of Naruto's clones. His counterattack dissolved the pair into smoke, but he caught sight of another fifty clones ringing the edge of the field. Sakura and Sasuke's eyes both widened as they realized that Naruto had just used some sort of clone that wasn't an illusion.

_1, 2, 3…50? What kind of jutsu is this?_ Sasuke wondered.

_What? Those aren't illusions, are they all real?_ Sakura thought

_Kage Bunshin!? So this is the forbidden jutsu he used to defeat Mizuki._

"No, I think I'll destroy your copy instead you jerk."

Kakashi spun again, a kunai suddenly in his hand as he struck out at the clone that had managed to appear right beside him. Said clone had been reaching to remove his precious book from his free hand.

"Good. Now you're taking me seriously." Naruto said as he crouched. The hand he held behind his back performed a series of basic Academy hand signs, directing Sasuke and Sakura to be ready for the opening he was going to create. Hopefully the idiots would get off their high horses and work with him. If not, Naruto mentally shrugged, not his problem. He would still get one of the bells and pass the exam.

"You can probably only hold this for a minute. No matter how many you line up…you are still Naruto. You can't beat me with that jutsu."

Naruto growled and sprinted forward, both his hands held up before him in what looked more like a boxer's stance than a standard Konoha taijutsu.

"Who said I was going to try the same trick again." Naruto yelled out as he sprinted forward, lashing out with a rapid fire punch combo that Kakashi was forced to dodge before leaping backwards and away from any possible counter attack.

"First lesson of Uzumaki Naruto. Beat Rush." Naruto muttered quietly as he returned to his ready stance.

_Practice._ He mentally amended.

_Naruto, you're pretty good._ Sakura thought, surprised by the display.

Naruto barely had time to react as Kakashi appeared behind him, his hands held in a tiger seal and thrusting towards Naruto.

"Konoha Ancient Taijutsu Supreme Technique A THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN!!!"

Kakashi's strike connected with Naruto's rear, only to dissolve Naruto into a blast of smoke.

_Another Kage Bunshin?!_ Kakashi thought in surprise, moments before an entire swarm of clones came slamming through the dissipating smoke, kicks and punches launched towards his head.

"THAT HURT YOU BASTARD!!" Naruto's voice echoed from beyond the attacking clones.

"Nice plan." Sasuke muttered as he watched the clones converge on Kakashi from all sides.

None of them connected as Kakashi used a Kawarimi to replace him self with one of the attacking clones.

"Damn." Naruto muttered.

"See Sasuke, Sakura." He said loudly as he turned, dispersing his clones and looking for Kakashi. "I'm better than either of you think, but we're still just genin. We have no chance against Kakashi-sensei unless we work together."

When his announcement was met with silence Naruto frowned and muttered to him self as he stalked off into the woods to hunt down Kakashi-sensei.

"I don't know why I even bother sometimes. The teme is too stuck up to ever accept any help."

Ten minutes later Naruto found one of the bells sitting on the ground in front of a tree. Smirking to him self Naruto ran forward, speaking loudly. "He dropped a bell, hehehe."

Just as Naruto was about to grab the bell he suddenly clenched his teeth as he felt something tighten around his leg and pull him into the air, causing several kunai and shuriken to drop from Naruto's sleeve. Naruto was left dangling hanging from a tree as Sasuke watched from a nearby tree. The duck-butt hair-styled shinobi didn't notice a small black capsule and the thin wire running from it to Naruto's closed fist.

"What the hell is this?!!" Naruto yelled out.

_Obviously a trap…even when he's playing with Naruto, he has not a single opening._

Kakashi walked slowly out of the woods and over to Naruto, squatting and reaching to retrieve the bell from the pile of implements that Naruto had lost control of.

"Think before using a jutsu, or it could be used against you. And don't fall for such obvious traps, baka." He said as he about closed his hand around the bell.

"Same to you, jerk." Kakashi's eyes widened as he heard a faint click from Naruto's hand.

BOOM!!!

Kakashi was suddenly sent flying backwards, having managed to dodge the worst of the blast. The ground below where Naruto was hanging was now a small crater with smoke rising up from it to obscure the blond shinobi. The last thing Kakashi saw was Naruto grinning at him before he was completely obscured within the smoke.

Jingle.

A grinning Naruto walked out of the smoke tossing the bell lightly in his hand.

"Ne, sensei. I managed to get one of the bells, even without the help of my teammates. Still, I sure wish they would have helped. I'm pretty certain that teamwork is the real purpose of this test after all."

Kakashi blinked, surprised that Naruto, the dobe, had apparently figured out the purpose of the test. He was even more surprised that the other two hadn't figured it out before the blond boy.

_He finally revealed an opening!!_ Sasuke crowed in his own mind as he struck rapidly launching a brace of kunai and shuriken towards Kakashi where they embedded themselves in his head, blood spurting out from the wounds.

Sasuke's victory was short lived as Kakashi was suddenly replaced by a wooden log, and the next thing either he or Naruto knew the silver-haired Jounin was running past Naruto and plucking the bell out of the air at the top of its arc.

"Looks like you won't be passing after all Naruto." He said as he disappeared back into the forest, Sasuke attempting to follow him.

Naruto blinked and watched the pair disappear and then closed his eyes, feeling the flow. As soon as he was sure that everything was clear he grinned and looked over his shoulder.

"Ne, you can release the Henge now." He said softly.

One of the kunai embedded in the base of the tree by the explosion suddenly puffed into smoke and revealed itself to be a copy of Naruto. The blond boy stepped forward and with a big grin on his face handed a bell lightly to the real Naruto.

"Kakashi-san…for one who believes in seeing 'underneath the underneath'…" the first Naruto spoke softly to the wind.

"You sure aren't very perceptive." The second Naruto finished before the two began to walk slowly in the direction Kakashi had headed, tucking the bell securely into a hidden pocket in his pants.

X

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Kakashi was sitting on a branch high up in a tree reading the latest volume of Icha Icha Paradise when he heard Sakura's high pitched scream.

"…I think that was a bit too much…" He muttered.

Nearby Sasuke paused. "That scream…" _Sakura…_

"Shinobi fighting lesson number 2. Genjutsu. Sakura easily fell for it.." Kakashi's voice came from behind Sasuke, complemented by the quite jingling of the two bells dangling from his waist.

"I'm not the same as them."

"Say that after you take a bell…Sasuke-kun." Kakashi said as he stepped away from the tree.

Sasuke turned to face him.

"The village's most powerful clan, the Uchiha Clan…this could be interesting…"

Kakashi and Sasuke regarded one another for a long silent moment. Suddenly Sasuke launched a trio of shuriken at Kakashi, forcing the Jounin to dodge to the side.

"Such obvious attacks are useless!!"

There was a snick sound as one of the shuriken cut through a rope amongst the bushes.

_A trap?_ Kakashi thought as he skidded to a halt. The Jounin leapt back into the air just in time to avoid a brace of knives that had been hurtling towards his position. The knives instead stuck themselves into a tree. Kakashi landed again and skidded to a halt.

_What?_ Kakashi thought as Sasuke suddenly attacked from behind him. The two exchanged a series of blows for a few seconds before Sasuke made an attempt at the bells, barely touching one with the tip of his finger before Kakashi's punch sent him flying away.

_What a guy…I didn't even have time to read in my Icha Icha Paradise…_

* * *

Elsewhere in the forest Sakura sat up, finally recovering from her brief bout with unconsciousness. When she remembered the horrible image that had caused her to faint she sat up hard.

"SASUKE-KUN!! DON'T DIE AND LEAVE ME BEHIND!! WHERE ARE YOU!!"

As Sakura set off to find Sasuke she never noticed a blond haired shinobi keeping a watchful eye on her from a nearby tree. Silently he leapt to the ground and shadowed her.

* * *

"Well…I have to acknowledge that you are different from the other two." Kakashi said.

Sasuke frowned and sped through a series of hand seals and took a deep breath.

"What?!" Kakashi cried out. _A genin shouldn't have enough chakra to be able to form that jutsu._

Sasuke spat forth a massive obliterating ball of flame towards Kakashi. When it cleared there was no sign of Kakashi, forcing Sasuke to frantically search for where the Jounin had gone.

"Below you." Kakashi's voice suddenly rang out. "Doton! Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!!"

Before Sasuke could react a hand thrust out of the ground and grabbed a hold of his ankle, pulling Sasuke down into the earth. Within moment's all that remained above ground of Uchiha Sasuke was his head.

"Shinobi fighting lesson number 3. Ninjutsu. Well, you're already way further with this than the others."

Any further comments from Kakashi were suddenly superceded as he turned to walk away, only to be met with a powerful roundhouse kick to the head by Naruto.

"ORAA!!!!!"

Kakashi was pushed to the side, and barely had time to straighten back up before Naruto's feet were connecting with his face again, kicking his head up and then down just before Naruto delivered a powerful somersault kick to his face that sent him flying back. Naruto landed in his ready stance and grinned.

"Second and third lesson of Uzumaki Naruto. Waterkick and Somersault." He said softly.

_Again, nothing but practice_. He thought, hiding his smirk.

Just because he was revealing some of his techniques to his teacher and the teme, didn't mean he was going to unveil the true techniques or the secret behind them.

"…another frontal assault, Naruto. I thought you had learned better after being caught in my trap."

Naruto grinned, not even allowing his attention to be distracted by another scream from Sakura as she entered the clearing and witnessed Sasuke's 'severed head'. The kunoichi promptly passing out and hitting the ground only drew the eyes of Sasuke and Kakashi. That was all the opening Naruto needed to shoot forward slamming into Kakashi with a thrust of his hands, forcing the Jounin backwards and off balance as Naruto got his feet beneath him and pressed against Kakashi.

To the surprise of everyone except for Naruto he thrust his feet downward, slamming Kakashi hard back first into the ground as Naruto leapt away, twisting and spinning to land on the ground facing him. Naruto immediately made a dive back towards Kakashi as the Jounin attempted to right him self, going for the bells. Naruto's trajectory was promptly stalled by Kakashi burying a fist into his stomach and then hitting him in the chest with an open hand strike.

JINGLE

Kakashi spun, wide eyed as he heard the jingling of the bells coming from somewhere other than his waist. Standing beside a now-free Sasuke and a once-again conscious Sakura were two copies of Uzumaki Naruto. One grinned and held up a hand, jingling the bell that hung from it before closing his fist tightly around it.

_Obviously he learned not to flaunt his victory too much._ Kakashi thought as he glanced down at his waste, only to find it devoid of both bells.

Noticing where Kakashi was looking, the Naruto who had been slammed by Kakashi's strikes grinned as he got to his feet, fighting off a grimace. Those blows had HURT after all.

"Ne, Kakashi-san. You really need to learn to practice what you preach." He said.

Kakashi looked at him in confusion.

"See 'beneath the underneath' and all that jazz."

Naruto grinned and pointed to the second clone as he stood and reached into his pants, withdrawing the second bell.

"I've had this thing for nearly an hour. I replaced it with a transformed clone before I exited the smoke and you took the bait. Then it was just a matter of waiting until you let your guard down for my clone to return to normal and make off with the second bell."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow as the two Naruto's holding the bells walked over to Sasuke and Sakura and took a hold of their hands. Sakura and Sasuke blinked in confusion as a pair of identical grinning faces smiled at them before placing the bells firmly in their hands and closing them on them.

"Hold onto these, ne? You'll fail the exam if you don't have them when the timer goes off." Identical voices spoke in stereo.

"But, Naruto…won't you fail if you don't have one?" Sakura asked, surprised that she even cared if Naruto failed or not. The baka had intruded on her alone-time with Sasuke-kun after all.

"Yeah, dobe. You really are a dobe if you are giving up the chance to become a genin."

The real Naruto grinned and looked Kakashi straight in the eye as he spoke.

"I don't think so, Sasuke. I'm more certain than ever now that the purpose of this exam was not to get the bells, but rather to work together as a team. Either we all pass or we all fail, so whether I have one of the bells or not doesn't matter in the end, isn't that right Kakashi?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as Kakashi nodded and crossed his arms.

"That is correct, Naruto. I am surprised; I guess karma had to give the dobe one lucky day to make up for his idiocy."

Naruto resisted the urge to growl, something he now figured was a result of the Kyuubi, and narrowed his eyes to slits.

"Sora and Karau head off in search of the desert oasis alone, but become trapped in a sand storm. Finding a cavern, they hide inside of it, but the cold desert night begins to sap their strength, and they quickly find that the only source of warmth available is each other."

As Naruto spoke he noticed Kakashi's eye widen in surprise, shock, and worry.

_He knows!!_

"Ne, Kakashi-san. Shall I continue, or are you satisfied that I can spoil the rest of Icha Icha Paradise Volume Twenty One for you?"

Kakashi lowered his head in defeat.

"You all…pass."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at Naruto in surprise. Naruto grinned back, his face once again bright, cheerful, and seemingly inane.

"You guys are the first. Everyone else would just do whatever I told them. They were all just morons. A ninja must see underneath the underneath, as Naruto properly understood. Thos who break the rules and codes of the ninja world are called trash…but you know what? Those who don't take care of their comrades…are lower than trash."

Kakashi turned to face the trio as Naruto had walked over to join his two teammates.

"Naruto seems to have understood this from the beginning, but neither of you were willing to listen to him. But in the end, Sasuke, you worked with Naruto to get the drop on me. And Sakura, you showed that you worried about your teammates, even Naruto." Kakashi continued. "That ends the training. All of you pass!!!"

Kakashi shot them a thumbs-up.

"Ok!!! Starting tomorrow Team Seven will begin its duties!!"

"Ne, then take us out to get ramen as a reward!" Naruto's voice rang out.

"NARUTO YOU IDIOT!!!" Sakura cried out as she smacked Naruto over the head.

As Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi began to walk together back towards the village proper, Naruto grinned and then slid the right sleeve of his jacket up. On his forearm was a golden bracer with two faintly glowing purple spheres set in it. Silently Naruto removed the spheres and pulled a pair of capsules out of his jacket. He pushed the button on top of the first one and tossed it to the ground where the capsule vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving a small metal trunk. Naruto opened the lid and opened a small ebon box within, tucking the spheres back where they belonged.

Naruto closed the lid and pressed a button on it, causing the entire thing to vanish in a puff of smoke and return to his hand as a capsule. He then took his bracer off and held it in one hand as he pressed the button on the second capsule. Instead of disappearing in a puff of smoke like the first one, this time a small beam of red energy shot out and enveloped the bracer before drawing it inside, leaving his hand free. Smiling, Naruto slipped the capsules back into his jacket and ran off, calling for his team mates to wait for him.

Once he had vanished, the air above the training ground rippled briefly in three spots before resolving into three of the probes. After beeping quietly to themselves for a few moment they cloaked again and flew off. Their 'son' had done quite well against a far superior foe.

* * *

Three hours later Uchiha Sasuke returned home after having had lunch with his new team and replacing some of the gear he had lost during the fight. He had also spent most of those three hours thinking about the dobe. How the hell had he gotten that good? It was like he was a completely different person than he had been before the genin exams. First that strange jutsu that made physical clones of him self, then the intelligence he showed, and finally those taijutsu moves. Sasuke had never seen anything like it.

Glaring at anything that moved Sasuke stalked gloomily back into the desolate Uchiha district, intent on returning home to train. He couldn't let the dobe show him up. Whatever that power he had somehow gained was, he would find a way to make him teach him it. He would need it if he was ever going to succeed in killing his brother.

"Hey!! Sasuke!!"

Sasuke looked up in surprise as Naruto's voice called out from in front of him. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The subject of his thoughts was standing in front of his house waving and grinning his ass off. Sighing, Sasuke stepped forward.

"What do you want, dobe?" He muttered as he walked past him and pulled out a key, opening the gate into his home.

"Well, since we are teammates now I figured that we should hang out, you know? Maybe train a little bit?" Naruto replied energetically.

Sasuke sighed and unlocked the door into his home.

"Whatever dobe. You can come in for a few minutes, but don't track any dirt into my home. I don't want you contaminating it." Sasuke said, sure that Naruto would not fail to note the disdain in his voice.

Naruto surprised him by failing to note that.

_Keep acting that way teme and you'll never get along with anyone. I'm not going to let that stop me from learning a bit more about you though. That technique you used was no simple jutsu._

Or maybe not.

As soon as the door had closed behind them Sasuke took off his shoes before stepping further into his house. To his pleasure Naruto had at least listened, as he heard the blond genin remove his own shoes behind him. Sasuke turned and crossed his arms.

"Now, why are you really here, Sakura?!" Sasuke yelled the last part as he leapt towards Naruto, his hands extended, intent on knocking the girl out of her genjutsu.

Sasuke promptly found him self gripped in midair and spun until he was flat down on the ground, one arm beneath his body and the other twisted behind his back as Naruto knelt in the middle of his back.

"Ne, Sasuke-kun. That's no way to treat a guest. Especially not one who simply wants to get to know his teammate better." Naruto said as he stood up and released Sasuke.

"Un. Sorry, but you try dealing with as many fangirls as I do and see if you don't start to get a little bit paranoid." Sasuke said as he stood, rubbing his tweaked shoulder.

Naruto shrugged. "I wouldn't know. The only people in Konoha who haven't treated me like crap all my life are Jiji, Old Man Ichiraku and his daughter Ayame, and Iruka."

Sasuke looked at Naruto again and updated his appraisal of the blond boy. He was definitely the number one surprising ninja. That was the fourth time in a single day that he had been surprised by Naruto's abilities.

"Ne, Naruto." Sasuke said as he lead the way into the kitchen to prepare some tea. "When did you get so strong."

"Huh?" Naruto responded as he followed. His attention had suddenly been diverted by a number of large gemstones prominently displayed on a shelf in the hallway. One in particular, a large green crystalline sphere with odd flowing imperfections in it, had mesmerized him momentarily. "Oh, I've always been a lot stronger than I let on, but my teachers didn't want anyone knowing that I was receiving special training. I think it had to do with the reason that everyone seems to hate me. As an orphan, I didn't really have anyone to teach me, ya know.?"

Naruto broke his gaze from the stone and continued into the kitchen, smiling and gladly accepting a cup of hot tea from Sasuke. The two took a seat at the kitchen table and breathed in the aroma of the tea for a few moments.

"Ne, Sasuke, I've been wondering. Yesterday you said that your goal is to kill someone. Who exactly?"

Sasuke put down his glass and looked up, his eyes cold.

"Naruto, you're an orphan, but I didn't think you were that stupid."

Naruto blinked in confusion.

"I want to kill the man who murdered my entire clan. My brother Itachi."

To Sasuke's confusion Naruto let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh thank god. For a moment yesterday I had thought you meant me."

Sasuke continued to blink and sputter like a fish before he finally managed to form a coherent sentence.

"DOBE!! WHY THE HELL WOULD I EVER WANT TO KILL YOU!!"

Naruto just chuckled.

"Trust me." He said grimly as he laughed. "You wouldn't be the first."

Naruto took another sip of his tea.

"Anyways, I have a question. I saw this really cool looking gem in your front hall. Do you think I could have it?"

Sasuke blinked.

_Why the hell does the dobe want a gem? All they are is pretty trinkets that some people will pay a lot for, and it's not like I need the money. I do have the entire Uchiha fortune at my fingertips after all. Wait…maybe this is a chance to learn some of those techniques of his._

"Maybe. What will you give me for it?"

Naruto grinned, an idea brewing in his head.

"Ne, what if I taught you one of those moves I used today."

Sasuke smirked and leant back in his chair.

"Sure, that would work."

Both boys grinned at one another, both thinking the same thought. Had they known, they'd probably have scrubbed their brains with soap to get rid of the contamination.

_Too easy._

* * *

Naruto left the Uchiha district two hours later with a grin on his face. He held the small red orb in his hand as he absentmindedly waved back towards the already closing front door of Uchiha Sasuke's abode. He had just gotten his hands on a new Materia, and all it had cost him was teaching Sasuke the disabling maneuver he had used on him when they first entered the house.

Tucking the sphere in his pocket Naruto moved into a run and headed off towards his private training ground. He wanted to show his new acquisition to his 'family' as soon as possible. And hopefully try some of that BBQ beef that Tifa had been learning to make as of late.

* * *

AN: First off, about Naruto's fighting style. Panther Fist is a style I've developed for Naruto based off a combination of Tifa's brawler style, Naruto's heavy use of aerial and odd attack angles in canon, and techniques learned from Yuffie and Vincent. Vincent Style is designed to integrate the use of weapons like knives, kunai, shuriken, etc. There are also Tifa Style, Yuffie Style, and what Naruto dubs Turk Style, which he learned from seeing recordings of Turks from Planet. Turk style utilizes a pair of rods, either simple metal, bladed, or with an ability to discharge electricity. Tifa style is entirely bare handed, and relies on heavy punches and kicks. It is a true brawler's technique. And finally Yuffie Style, which has Naruto fighting using, you guessed it, Yuffie's uber windmill shuriken. Or, more accurately, several of them. The style displayed by him here was obviously Tifa Style, or again more accurately, Tifa Style Practice Version. Naruto after all isn't going to give up any more knowledge of his private techniques than he has to. The techniques he displayed should be recognizable to those of you who have seen Advent Children. They are four of the Limit Breaks displayed by Tifa during her fight in the church. For clarification, the first was performed with no use of his Materia. The second through fourth were, but only so much as he boosted his speed and strength a little to give him the edge he needed to bypass Kakashi's expectations of him. He was still very much using the Practice versions of the techniques. Also, although it wasn't stated, the fourth technique was Meteordrive, at least the Advent Children version of it. In the original game it was actually a suplex drop or something, but I liked the Advent Children version better. Next time, maybe I'll give you a glimpse of Vincent Style. We'll just have to wait and see.

Some sections are pretty close to canon, but again, there is a reason for that. The original idea of this fic was actually twofold, one involving Naruto being trained to wield a big ass sword, and two involving him having received special training before making genin and then follow as it affects canon as he keeps it a secret until it's safe to unveil. I do guarantee that while events of arc 1 will sometimes follow or mimic cannon, those events beyond arc 1 will begin to take on a very distinct character. In fact, Naruto's return after training is already partially plotted out. The latter idea was inspired by Tellemicus Sundance's "Legacy of the Rasengan", a fic that I urge you all to go read. The third part is still unfinished, but he is working on it slowly, and it is an absolutely epic story. You have it to thank in part for the existence of this story.

Also, for anyone worrying that this fic will shape up to be a NaruxSaku fic, never fear. Naruto's two love interests, not at the same time (exactly) mind you, are already chosen, and neither is from Konoha. In fact, before this story is through, Naruto will get fed up with Sakura and finally tell her just what the hell he thinks of her. Needless to say, there will be lots of screaming involved.

Also, I have recently decided to begin sketching ideas for three new fics, two Naruto and one Pokemon. Before you all go Ick I promise that the Pokemon one will NOT be tied to the anime, and I will be doing my damnest to make it awesome as hell. The first of the two Naruto fics was an idea I had while listening to "Live and Learn" from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the Nintendo GameCube, which involves a futuristic version of Naruto's world, and him and all the other characters appropriately adapted to the world. It currently has no planned name, as I need to develop it further before I can decide on an appropriate title for it. The second was an idea that developed in my mind after reading "Blonds Have More Fun" by EroSlackerMicha, who I seem to end up plugging every few chapters in my fics and "Once More with Feeling this Time" by gman391. The first was written involving memories of some of the characters being sent back in time, and I recommend it to anyone who likes NaruxIno, or a good Sasuke-bashing. The second is much more recent, and was inspired by "Blonds Have More Fun", and is a NaruxHinata. It's not nearly as good imho, but its younger, and I also happen to be biased towards EroSlackerMicha's works. Despite that it's still worth a read, even if only to see if it suits your tastes. Anyways, I don't want to spoil anything, mostly because it's in early development stages, but my story, which shall be named "Desert Fox Redux", will be NarutoxTemari.

Anyways, until next time, jaa ne!!

PS: Read to the end of the review responses for a special treat; a look into my mind, the planning of Legacy of the Planet, and the music behind its creation.

**Review Responses**

OBSERVER01 – I prefer to avoid using the filler characters in my story unless I find it absolutely necessary to drive the plot. This is partially due to me having refused to watch the majority of the fillers out of disgust at how low the quality of them was compared to the rest of the series. As to using Yugito, maybe I will, maybe I won't. All I'll say is that his final girlfriend has already been chosen and set in stone.

ZortkiyaTheTroll – Hehe, why thank you. The Materia are of course just one aspect of what I am exploring though. As you'll notice, Naruto pulled out mostly taijutsu and a small explosive during this match, using the Materia only to increase his speed and power a little bit.

Challenger – I may, but I know most of the female characters that I would normally use in such a story quite well already. As I said above, I normally avoid using filler characters for a reason.

Moonfal – Ouchies. I know the feeling of not doing so hot in bio. Its my favorite subject, but it can be annoyingly hard sometimes. Anyways, I hope you loved this chapter as well, especially me finally letting Naruto's skills a little off the leash. I hope you weren't expecting any spectacular Materia usage though, as Naruto is keeping that under tight wrap.

Jaa ne my friend.

-ZI

gunnslie – Haha, don't I know it. Maybe sometime I'll tell you about some of the last minute papers I've pulled out of my ass.

Lord Ezra'eil - *grins evily* May-be.

..

..

Ok, so that should be a pretty obvious yes to you. I'll even give you a little hint about how he will be portrayed. Zaraki Kenpachi. Nuff said.

The Fanfic Stealer – Oh yes, and they will be very fun to utilize and represent, as they each have such unique and wonderful personalities.

GodricGryff – Oh yes, I have a list of every summon and Materia that I might use in the story, including in some cases notations on their effects or appearances/personalities. While he may or may not end up acquiring all of these, and even if he does he tends to favor a certain set, it was fun simply planning it out. There are several summons that are guaranteed though, as well as a number of Materia. I don't want to hint too much though, as that might ruin the surprise.

As to his relationships, the first girl and him spark, but not enough, and for their own reasons don't stay together. His second relationship takes a little bit of time, but they had the spark from day one. Their just wary and careful about relationships. That and they really don't want to screw up what could be 'the one'.

Jaa ne.

-ZI

animegamemaster6 – Hehe, well, once he knew what they were and that the AIs were training Naruto to use them, he felt it appropriate that he should have them. Especially since they HAD been brought back from the war by the Yondaime.

Hope you liked this chapter!

Kd8gun – Yeah, that is a bit annoying, and I apologize. It's more annoying because of the way ffnet formats the document, as it adds the extra space between them even though I originally intended for them to appear in a block, supposedly representing a readout in the database of the machine while speaking. And simply put, I don't want to change it now as it helps me make it abundantly clear when they are speaking. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well, and the relatively nonexistent AI communications in it. And no, I did not cut out communications to make it more readable. This was just how the chapter turned out.

Officer Dibble – Oh, trust me. Neji will be getting something courtesy of her at some point. The difference though is Neji believes that fate is immutable, that you cannot change your destiny. Shiva is the opposite. She KNOWS that fate can be changed if you nudge it at the right points.

Jaa ne!

-ZI

chm01 – Thanks man. I hope you liked this chapter as well.

Stormraven – Why thank you. Hopefully you will check out my other stories at some point, and hopefully they will meet with your approval as well. There will be a couple others joining the line up eventually as well, as soon as I formulate them enough and write the first chapter or two.

Aznblackhowling – hope you enjoyed it!

Bobboky – Haha. Hope you enjoyed this one as well.

Lexor – Nope, it couldn't have been. No Choc and Mog, as I decided not to place that one in the story, and no Ifrit. He is just badass boom boom and not for a dinky twelve year old to be playing with.

Alone shadow dream – Why thank you.

Kerensky02 – Hehe, thanks for the encouragement. As you may have noticed from the Author's note, there are several more fics in development along with the ones I currently have running. Allow me to assure you and everyone else that I will NOT be discontinuing any of these fics. I simply have lots of ideas, and I refuse to not write one just because I have other stories going. Every fic I start I intend to finish, even if it takes a while.

Akira Stridder – He does, but he'll get over it. Eventually he even screams his head off at her before disappearing for two and a half years. And yes, Sasuke is a snitch. And an idiot. He traded Naruto a powerful artifact for a SINGLE ultimately dinky technique.

AtlantisWolf – Oh, he won't be summoning her. But what he DOES use against Neji is particularly…potent…during that fight, thanks to her influence.

Jaa ne!

-ZI

Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto666 – Hehe, hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. I'd suggest checking out my other fics as well, as I update them in a semi-regular cycle (except for when major inspiration hits for one of the stories).

**Chapter 5 Special Appendix 1: The Origin of Character Interactions in "Legacy of the Planet"**

I know, long-ass title for a small little bonus. So sue me. Anyways, back on topic. I've had lots of people wondering about character interactions in the story, particularly the pairings. I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions after this latest chapter as well. From the beginning this story has been intended to be a Naruto feeling like his team has mistreated him and looked down on him, even his sensei neglecting his training. This leads to a Naruto who at the end of arc one will be depressed, angry, despondent, and most of all extremely resentful. Jiraiya taking him off on a training mission will be more than just for Naruto's protection from Akatsuki, but also to give the boy time to grow and live and adapt, without the constant reminders of all the shit he was put through. Naruto will return to Konoha, and his friends and teammates after the training journey are intended to be a direct counterpoint to his previous experience on Team 7.

First is the girl he loves, who is a direct counterpoint to Sakura and her inability to see what was right in front of her face. This girl recognizes how wonderful Naruto is, and accepts him for who and what he is.

Second is his leader, who unlike Kakashi sees his potential, and puts every effort into training him to be harder, better, stronger, stronger.

Third is the final member of the team, who is a damn strong shinobi, with a bit of arrogance as she knows she is good. But unlike Uchiha Sasuke, she doesn't see Naruto as a thorn or someone to overcome, but as a valued teammate.

Naruto's disdain for his former teammates will be very apparent as well, right down to his outright refusal to be assigned to a team with Kakashi and Sakura again. He will do so only reluctantly after the Hokage threatens charging him with insubordination, and even then he emphasizes that he is only accepting it for the purpose of the specific mission because it's the "logical thing to do" in that situation. That and one of his teammates would run off on the mission regardless of whether he was sent along on another team or not, and he wasn't about to leave her unprotected.

I hope that this little glimpse at what I intend for everybody's favorite hyperactive blond has whet your whistle, and I will be curious to see what you all think as the story progresses and more and more becomes apparent.

**Chapter 5 Special Appendix 2: Music**

There is a very large amount of music that I listen to while I'm working on this and other stories. A large part of it is general background music ranging from sources such as the Naruto soundtracks to the Halo 3 Soundtrack, music from the Super Smash Bros Brawl soundtrack and the many Legend of Zelda soundtracks, to music from a production studio called Immediate Music. They seem to specialize in music for movies and movie trailers, and I have a number of their tracks when I need more epic sounding tunes.

But the tracks that truly represent this story are what I call its themes. Eventually I will have a complete mini soundtrack list for you all for this story, but for now I can only offer you the first Opening and Ending themes for it. As I settle on more tracks, I will add them, sometimes with notations as to which scenes they belong to. There is an entire video sequence in my mind for the Opening and Ending for this story, and maybe if there is enough interest I might be persuaded to sit down and write a songfic-ish Appendix for the next chapter attempting to describe the sequences for you all to imagine. If I could draw I'd almost be tempted to try to actually make the opening itself.

Anyways, without further adieu, I present to you the first Opening and Ending tracks for "Legacy of the Planet".

Opening Number 1: Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

Ending Number 1: Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park

**Since I probably won't get another chapter of this up by Christmas, I'd like to wish all of you loyal readers a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah, and a Happy Holidays from me to you. Jaa ne!**

**-ZI**


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I wish I owned these series. Then I could make people make this into a manga for all of you fine folks to read. Maybe a never ending anime and a series of video games as well.

* * *

Chapter 6: Making Waves, Losing Friends

The sun shone brightly over the forests of Konoha, small white clouds floating here and there upon the breeze. Hatake Kakashi sat crouched on a tree branch with a boom mic in front of his mask.

"What's the distance to the target?" He asked. He received a response over his headset almost immediately.

"Five meters. I'm ready anytime." "So am I." "Me too."

"OK!" He said with more energy. "GO!!"

Elsewhere in the forest the members of Team 7 paused for a moment as they peered around the trees they were hiding behind at their target, then as one and with a massive cry the trio leapt out in an attempt to capture their target.

"Gotcha!" Naruto yelled out as he grabbed a hold of a large orange tiger cat. He was promptly subjected to large amounts of biting and scratching as Sakura confirmed the target's identity.

"Ribbon on the left ear…Are you sure this is the target, Tora?" Kakashi's voice came over their head sets.

"Yeah, we're sure." Sasuke replied coolly.

"Good. Lost Pet "Tora" Search Mission Complete!"

* * *

In the Hokage's Office an hour later Team 7 stood arrayed before the Hokage and the client, the Fire Daimyou's Wife Madam Shijimi. As the large woman seemingly crushed the cat to death in happiness the members of Team 7 all sweat dropped.

_No wonder it ran away._ Sakura thought.

_Haha. In your face stupid cat._ Naruto thought as he fought hard not to laugh.

"Now…Kakashi's Team 7, your next duty is…" The Hokage began to speak as Madam Shijimi exited the room. "Hmm…Babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighboring village, and help with the potato dgging."

Naruto, who was tired of doing D-Rank missions for the past six months when he knew that the Hokage was very well aware of the real level of his abilities, snapped.

"NO!!! NO!!! NO!!!! No, thank you!!!" He cried out. "I want to do, you know, a more incredible mission!!! Find us a better one Jiji!!!"

Sasuke silently agreed with his teammate while Sakura muttered to her self that Naruto was annoying.

"You idiot!! You are just a rookie!!!" Iruka said as he stood up, slamming his palms onto the desk. "Everyone starts off with the simple duties and works their way up!!!"

The Hokage sighed as Naruto yelled back.

"But!! But!! We keep getting the crappiest possible duties!!"

"Be quiet you!!" Kakashi said as he intervened, bopping Naruto on his head with his fist.

"Naruto!! It seems I have to explain to you what these duties are all about." The Hokage began in a calm voice. "Listen, everyday the village receives numerous requests, from babysitting to assassination. Each request is written down on these lists…"

Naruto half listened as the old man explained things to him, respecting the old man too much to interrupt him again. He knew everything the Hokage was saying of course since he had just been playing dumb in school since he realized that he couldn't get a good grade even if he had a perfect score. He was absolutely certain that most of his teachers had been sabotaging his training, but he couldn't prove it without giving up the secret of his true skills.

In another world Naruto might have broken down and revealed his skills in order to earn some respect in the short term, but the events of his life had driven home to the blond be-whiskered boy just how few allies he had, and how many people were potential enemies. As much as it pained him to act weaker than he was, he knew that it was for the best. There would be plenty of time to earn respect later once he could protect him self from any threat.

When the Hokage finished speaking Naruto remained quiet and thoughtful, his arms crossed across his chest. Finally, after several long moments he spoke.

"I know all that, Hokage-sama." He began, the formality in his voice surprising both Iruka and the Hokage. "But the fact is that I am not the trouble-making brat you both still appear to think I am. I've improved, and you know it."

Naruto shared a staring contest with the Hokage, daring the old man to deny the truth of his words. Finally Sarutobi smiled and spoke.

"Ok, if you want it that much then I'll give you a C-rank mission. It's a protection mission of a certain individual." He said. "Hey, will you come in here?"

A door at the side of the room slid open to reveal an older man with a battle of alcohol in his hand and a pack on his back.

"What's this? They're all a bunch of super brats." He said as he took a swig from his bottle. "Especially the shortest one with the super stupid-looking face. Are you really a Ninja? Hey?!!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed and the blond boy used all the restraint he had to keep from growling. It wouldn't do him any good, and it might risk exposing his secret if his teammates actually turned out to be smart enough to put two and two together.

"Who are you?" He asked instead, his voice cold.

"I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna." The old man replied. "I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge."

Rather than complain Naruto just nodded and turned to face his sensei.

"Permission to gather supplies and meet you at the main gates, Sensei?"

Iruka blinked in surprise, as he was the only shinobi in the room who hadn't been exposed to Naruto's more serious side.

"Permission granted, Naruto." Kakashi said.

Before the silver-haired Jounin had even completed his sentence Naruto had been out the door like an orange lightning bolt. Everyone else just assumed that Naruto wanted to buy a lot of extra equipment that they wouldn't end up needing.

The truth was that he wanted to say goodbye to his 'family' and grab a few items as insurance.

* * *

Naruto met back up with his team an hour later just outside of Konoha's main gates. He was surprisingly the last one to surprise, but he didn't let the surprise show on his face as he walked up with his hands tucked into his jacket and a large pack on his back. Kakashi noted with some surprise that Naruto had a large windmill shuriken strapped to his pack, but the Jounin wrote it off as Naruto attempting to be better than Sasuke again.

"Sorry I'm late, I got lost on the road of life." Naruto deadpanned, earning a narrowing of Kakashi's eyes and sweatdrops from his two teammates. "Anyways, let's go."

Naruto began walking again, taking point by virtue of his already being thirty feet out of the gates before anyone else began to move.

"Hey!! Am I really going to be safe with this brat?" Naruto heard Tazune ask Kakashi. He also heard Kakashi's reply, but he decided that discretion was the better part of valor and instead took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of Nature all around him.

This would be the first time that Naruto had actually left Konoha, so he was looking forward to being somewhere where the people did not glare at him constantly, someplace where he might be seen for what he was rather than what people mistakenly thought he was. He was also looking forward to communing with Nature in a new location, hoping that it would help his training in that regard.

They had been walking for about four hours when Sakura spoke up, asking Tazuna and Kakashi about the Wave Country. As Naruto listened absentmindedly to Kakashi's explanation with part of his attention the rest of his mind was focused on the flow around him. There was a silence in the trees around them that shouldn't be there, a silence that he had come to equate with the presence of either large predators or humans. As this region was not known for any large predators that would be stealthy enough to be this close without him having heard and smelt them, then it stood to reason that somewhere in the nearby trees enemies were lurking.

Slowly, so as to not alert anyone, Naruto slipped his hands up into the sleeves of his garish orange jacket, for once thankful that he wore the monstrosity as it allowed him to easily conceal this action and what he wore beneath the jacket. As they passed a puddle in the middle of the road Naruto's eyes narrowed and he tightened his grip on his weapons. He closed his eyes for a moment, blocking out sight as he temporarily took leave of his senses, instead reaching out with his spirit to feel the flow of Nature around him. Sure enough, the spot where the puddle was radiated no feeling of water, but rather two human chakra signatures.

The orange-clad shinobi smirked and prepared for the fight that was about to come, but even all his logical understanding of the situation that would come didn't prepare him for the resurgence of the chemicals in his bloodstream that triggered his fight or flight response.

As he sensed the two chakra sources begin to change he spun and prepared to strike with his kunai, only to watch in wide-eyed horror as a bladed-chain stretched tight between the two masked enemy shinobi chopped Kakashi into bloody pieces. Moments later his eyes widened even further in fear as a voice from behind him spoke softly while.

"Two down."

Naruto stared in fear as the bladed chain came streaming towards him, preparing to slice straight through his neck. At the last second the expression on his face suddenly changed like flicking a switch on a light. His eyes narrowed and his features stilled into a mask of determination as his entire body tensed, going from flight to fight in that instant. He didn't have time to do anything though as a shuriken suddenly whizzed through the air, dragging the chain away from Naruto and pinning it securely to a nearby tree. The two shinobi attempted to pull the chain free only for Sasuke to land on top of both of them and lash out with a spinning kick to their heads, knocking the pair away as they disconnected the chain from the clawed gauntlets on their arms.

The two shinobi separated to the sides, one attempting to circle around Naruto and attack him from the side while the other headed straight towards where Sakura was guarding the client. The first one thought that Naruto was going to be easy prey, so he was surprised when Naruto suddenly blurred and he found a kunai slammed into his shoulder. A second later Naruto reappeared, rushing straight towards him and lashing out with a vicious round kick which caused the air to ripple around it almost as if the leg were sliding through water.

The impact from the kick sent him flying to the left, but Naruto didn't let up in his assault. The blond boy raced under and launched his opponent into the air with a kick straight to the solar plexus before leaping after him. While still in the air Naruto grabbed his opponent and spun, delivering a smashing kick that sent the enemy shinobi plummeting to the ground. There was a loud crack upon impact and a small crater was left behind. Naruto landed beside the crater, breathing heavily, his eyes wide and almost manic as he began to come down off the combat high, the fear returning now that his system had ceased being flooded with nor-adrenaline.

Meanwhile the second shinobi had fallen prey to a fist slamming into his gut and knocking the wind out of him as Kakashi appeared before him. Less than a second later the man was unconscious as Kakashi struck him in the back of the neck rendering him unconscious.

Sakura smiled in excitement as she realized that Kakashi was still alive. Sasuke, who had chased after the second target and thus hadn't seen Naruto's display, muttered to him self something about "show off" while he looked at his teacher.

Naruto on the other hand had dropped to one knee as he attempted to regain control of his body, the fear that still flooded his system preventing him from noticing the cut he had received on his hand when he had first frozen, the blood dripping towards the ground.

"Naruto, I'm sorry I didn't save you immediately. I got you injured…but I didn't think you would freeze like that." Kakashi said. "Anyways, nice job Sasuke."

Naruto was still too wound up to care that Kakashi had ignored his contribution in favor of praising the Uchiha.

_This was his first real battle, but he looks as if nothing happened. Was he not scared at all?_

At this point it should be noted that the compound which Naruto's system had been flooded removed his safeguards, turning him into a happy rational killer. As this was the first time the situation had pushed his fight or flight response this close to the edge he was unused to the transition, so his memories of that part of the flight are blurry. He remembers what he was doing, but it's almost as if he were watching a recording rather than remembering actually doing it.

"Hey!!"

Naruto looked up and caught Sasuke smirking at him with his hands in his pockets. "You alright…Scaredy-cat?"

Naruto clenched his teeth, shooting Sasuke a glare. Apparently the Uchiha-teme hadn't caught Naruto's part of the battle either.

"Naruto, save it for later." Kakashi interrupted. "Their claws are soaked in poison. We have to remove it quickly. We must open the wound and release the poisoned blood from your body. Don't move much, or the poison will spread."

Kakashi cocked his head to the left.

"Tazuna-san, I need to talk to you."

As Kakashi tied the enemies to the tree before they could wake up Naruto walked over to a tree on the opposite side of the path. Making sure that his teammates were otherwise occupied he unzipped his jacket and removed a small capsule. The blond boy pushed a button on it and dropped it to the ground between his legs, watching as a small rectangular white box appeared from a puff of smoke.

With a sigh Naruto took the remaining kunai that he had stashed up his sleeves and holding his arm carefully off to the side stabbed the kunai into the back of his hand. As he watched Kakashi question the old man about the mission and what was really going on Naruto let the blood run free, the poison being removed from his system by a combination of chakra burning it away and the blood carrying it out of his body.

Finally he could feel no more sign of the poison affecting his system so Naruto removed the kunai and dropped it to the ground. Opening the box before him he paused for a moment, considering the value of using one of the small vials resting in cushioned slots in one side of the box, before he pulled out a small jar of a creamy white salve which he applied liberally over the wound. Once he was finished he put the jar back and wrapped some bandages around his hand to keep the wound clean.

_Aerith-nee-chan is going to yell at me SOOO much for letting myself get hurt. And Cloud and Vincent are probably going to put me through the 'Obstacle Course from Hell'© for freezing up._

As Naruto stood back up and began to walk back towards his team he heard Kakashi saying something that annoyed the hell out of him.

"I guess we should return to the village to treat Naruto."

_Does that bastard think I'm so weak that I can't fight off a little poison? It's bad enough that everyone thinks I'm weaker than Sasuke, even though I've proved my self in fights three times now, but now Kakashi-sensei is suggesting that we FAIL our first C-rank mission and blame it on me?_ "NO WAY IN HELL!!"

This last part he shouted out loud as he reached his team, causing all four of those before him to turn and look at him in surprise. Naruto held up his bandaged hand, holding the bloodied kunai in his grasp.

"I've dealt with the poison Kakashi-sensei, and I swear by the pain of this left hand of mine that I'll protect the old man. We're continuing the mission!"

Naruto's tone was strong and firm, showing no sign of the fear that had gripped him during the fight. He stood with a look of fierce determination on his face, his eyes slightly narrowed and the blazing blue daring someone to challenge his assertion.

After a few moments Sasuke smirked and spoke up as well.

"Of course we're continuing the mission, Dobe. I'm not about to let my first real mission be ruined on account of you being so scared that you got yourself injured."

Kakashi nodded. "Very well, we are continuing on then."

Kakashi knocked the two captured shinobi out again and then sent off a messenger bird to alert the Konoha ANBU to send a team to retrieve the duo for interrogation before leading his team and their charge off down the path once again. All the while Naruto was stewing silently, not having missed the fact that Kakashi had clearly been about to end the mission and take them back to Konoha. That is, he was right up until the Uchiha-teme spoke.

Not for the first time Naruto found him self resisting the urge to growl at the injustice of it all.

* * *

Late the next day they finally reached the coast of the Fire Country. Following Tazuna's directions they found a man waiting for them with a small boat. Quickly and quietly they boarded the boat, taking advantage of the mists that obscured the waters dividing the Wave Country from the Fire Country to conceal their approach.

After about five minutes they were in the midst of the mists, and Naruto had his eyes closed and his hands together as he focused on Nature around him, like Nanaki and Aerith had taught him.

_Feel the flow. Allow it wash over you like a wave of peace. Do not try to control it, but rather let it guide you. Trust in the spirit of the Planet and you will not be led astray._

As he remembered their lessons, imagining their voices in his head he opened him self up to whispering that always accompanied regions where Nature was strong. Quietly he meditated, completely ignoring the presence of his team. Sasuke-teme had been getting on his nerves, as usual, Kakashi-_sensei_ had been ignoring Naruto if he could help it as if the blond-haired shinobi were not worth his time training, as usual, and Sakura was squealing over Sasuke, as fucking usual. Even after Naruto took down one of the enemy shinobi she still thought he was just a useless idiot, and took great pleasure in telling him so at every opportunity just because she thought it would endear her to Sasuke.

_It's just not fair!_

Naruto's mental concentration had been broken by his train of thought and no matter how hard he tried he was just too worked up to regain his focus again. Muttering quietly to him self he opened his eyes and reopened his senses to the outside world just in time to hear the man guiding the boat mention something about a bridge. Looking up Naruto watched as a massive bridge appeared out of the mist.

"Whoa…" He said softly, gazing up at the edifice as the boat drifted slowly and silently alongside the pylons, following the unfinished bridge back towards the shore of the Wave Country.

When they finally reached the shore Naruto marveled at the complex wall, full of small tunnels that had been constructed to help protect the coastal city against rough weather.

Silently they glided through the lessening mist up to a small ramshackle dock where they disembarked. The owner of the boat and Tazuna said their good byes and then the man sped off, using the engine on the boat now to get away before anyone could spot him associating with what were essentially "rebels".

"OK!!" Tazuna said energetically as they walked off the dock and towards a path into the woods. "Get me home safely."

"Yes yes." Kakashi replied flatly, clearly tired of the generally-drunk bridge builder.

About ten minutes later as they were walking along Naruto sensed something or someone moving in the bushes behind them. Acting fast he grabbed a shuriken and dropped into a crouch as he launched it into the bushes.

"There!!!" He called out as the projectile whirred through the air.

When there was absolute silence Naruto stood back up and narrowed his eyes.

_Someone was there, I'm sure of it._

"Stop trying to act cool!!" Sakura's screeching voice came from behind him. "There was nothing there!!"

"Hey…please stop using shuriken…it's seriously dangerous." Kakashi added.

_You'd both be singing a different tune if it had been Sasuke who acted._ Naruto thought with narrowed eyes, completely ignoring Tazuna's comments of 'midget' and 'moron'.

After a few seconds he smirked and spun, launching a second shuriken into another set of bushes.

"There!!!"

"I said stop!!!" Sakura yelled again as she smacked Naruto in the back of the head with that scary strength she possessed.

"Somebody is after us, Sakura," Naruto muttered as he rubbed where she had hit him. "Just because your too busy sending googly-eyes to Sasuke-teme to be aware of your surroundings doesn't mean that I'm not aware."

"Yeah right!!!" She yelled back.

Kakashi meanwhile walked over and checked behind the bushes, finding a shivering white rabbit shaking on the ground just below where the shuriken had impacted. While Sakura berated an unremorseful Naruto over his actions Kakashi was thinking about the rabbit. Suddenly he sensed something in the trees above them and yelled out.

"Everyone, get down!!"

Sasuke pushed Tazuna to the ground while Sakura fell on top of Naruto, who much to her surprise had already dropped flat to the ground before Kakashi had even called out. A large sword came whirling through the space they had previously occupied until the blade embedded itself into a tree, a tall man wearing camoflauge arm and leg warmers and no shirt stood, his lower face concealed by bandages and his back towards the Konoha shinobi and their client.

"Well well, if it isn't the Hidden Mist's nuke-nin Momochi Zabuza." Kakashi said, his hands in his pockets presenting a falsely relaxed exterior.

Next to him Naruto had his eyes narrowed as he eyed the gigantic sword that the so-named Zabuza had brought into play.

_Fuck! With a weapon like that in play, I'll have no choice but to reveal some of my secrets._

"Everybody get back. This one's on a whole other level." Kakashi said, putting out an arm to emphasize the need for his students to stay back.

Sakura and Sasuke both stared up at the figure of Momochi Zabuza as Kakashi reached up and pulled back the hitai-ate that perpetually covered his left eye.

"It will be a little tough, unless I do this." He said.

"You appear to be Sharingan Kakashi." Zabuza replied. "Sorry but the old man is mine."

Sakura and Tazuna looked up in confusion as Sasuke's eyes widened at the mention of the Sharingan and Naruto's narrowed.

_Kakashi-sensei posseses the Sharingan? No wonder he's known as the Copy Ninja._

"Surround and protect Tazuna-san." Kakashi said to his team. "Do not enter the fight. That's the teamwork here."

Kakashi finished pulling his hitai-ate up.

"Zabuze first…" He said as he opened his eye, revealing a red eye with three black tomoe in a spiral around his pupil. "…fight me."

"Ah…I already get to see the famous Sharingan." Zabuza said as he turned to face Kakashi fully. "I'm honored."

Suddenly Zabuza bounded off of the tree, drawing his sword with him and leaping onto the surface of a lake that was sitting about thirty feet away from the surprised genin. He appeared holding one hand in the air and his other hand in a seal, his sword slung across his back. Naruto shivered as he felt the large amounts of Chakra that Zabuza was releasing.

"Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu." Zabuza spojke, vanishing as mist flooded out from his location.

"He'll come after me first." Kakashi said. "Momochi Zabuza…as a member of the Hidden Mist he was known as an expert in silent killing. You don't even notice until you're already dead. It's not like I can use the Sharingan perfectly. You guys be careful."

Sakura and Sasuke looked tensed, but Naruto merely nodded. He had his eyes narrowed and was extending his senses as much as he dared risk, knowing full well the trade off in reaction time he suffered while reaching out to Nature for direction. He had his hand closed into a fist, a small white capsule sitting there with the trigger already depressed. All he needed was an opening to trigger it where he wouldn't draw Zabuza down upon his head before he could make use of what the capsule contained.

"Eight choices." Zabuza's voice came out of the mist. "Liver, Lungs, Spine, Clavical vein, Neck vein, Brain, Kidneys, Heart. Which one should I go afer?"

Sasuke and Sakura both looked around in surprise and fear, while Tazuna just froze as his blood ran cold. Naruto on the other hand smirked, as his little surprise being unleashed in the middle of the mist would mean that no one would see or sense it happening. Silently Naruto let the capsule fall to the ground before him, none of his teammates seeing as smoke flushed out briefly from before him to reveal a sword as tall as Naruto him self.

A sudden wash of killing intent flooded over the genin. Sasuke's eyes widened and the last loyal Uchiha began to sweat.

"Sasuke… don't worry." Kakashi said, speaking calmly in an attempt to reassure the Uchiha. "I'll protect you guys even if it kills me."

"I don't let my comrades die." He said as he smiled at his students.

"We'll see about that!!" Zabuza voice echoed from the mist as the tall man appeared crouched between Tazuna, Sasuke, and Sakura.

Acting swiftly Naruto reached out and grabbed the hilt of the weapon before him, pulling out a pair of crystal spheres, one green and one blue, and slamming them home in two sockets that appeared to have been made specifically for them. Both spheres flared up momentarily, a stream of blue-green light connecting them along a groove in the weapon and suddenly Naruto was moving, spinning and stabbing under Tazuna's arm to shove his sword through Zabuza's back and out of the man's chest. He almost hit Kakashi as the Jounin leapt in to knock his other two students out of the way and attack Zabuza as well.

"Sensei!! Behind you!!" Naruto called out as Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi preparing to swing his sword and the Zabuza that Naruto had stabbed collapsed into a puddle of water.

Before Kakashi could react Zabuza's sword bisected him, earning a cry of fear and horror from Sakura before the two halves of Kakashi's body collapsed into water, earning a slight widening of Zabuza's eyes in surprise.

"Don't move!!" Kakashi yelled out as he appeared behind Zabuza, holding a kunai to the sword-wielder's neck. "It's over!!"

Sakura laughed as she thought that Kakashi had won, but Naruto kept a firm grip on his weapon, his senses expanded searching for any sign of incoming attack. This had been too easy.

"Hehehe…It's over? You don't get it. :Zabuza said with a chuckle. "There's no way you can defeat me with your monkey-like imitations."

Naruto tightened his grip on his sword, preparing to react to anything.

"Hehe…but that was impressive of you." He continued. "At that time you had already copied my Mizu Bunshin technique. You had your clone say those words to attract my attention while the real you hid in the mist and watched me. Nice plan."

Zabuza looked forward. "And that sword, boy, I don't know how you were concealing that, but kudos for bringing it into play without me sensing anything. That takes some real skill to conceal your chakra release that well. But…"

Suddenly a second Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi holding a kunai to the silver-haired Jounin's neck instead.

"I'm also not that easy…"

Suddenly Zabuza hauled back and attempted to slice Kakashi in half again but the silver-eyed Jounin dropped flat to the ground, allowing Zabuza's blade to spin all the way around and lodge in the ground behind Zabuza. Without missing a beat Zabuza pushed off and launched into a kick that connected with Kakashi's chest and sent him flying out over the water where he landed with a big splash.

Zabuza attempted to run forward, but before he could fully withdraw his sword from the ground he was forced to pull up short as Naruto's blade cut through the space he had been about to occupy, said blond ninja twisting in midair and kicking off the back of his blade to redirect it down in a slice that made Zabuza flip backwards and draw his own blade. Next thing the nuke-nin knew the boy was bringing the blade down in an overhand strike.

CLANG

Zabuza brought his own blade up to counter Naruto's and his greater familiarity with combating such large weapons and his greater experience and strength won out, sending Naruto flying off into the trees.

Taking advantage of having knocked the genin away Zabuza moved behind where Kakashi was struggling to get out of the water, performing a series of hand seals and performing the Suirō no Jutsu no Jutsu on the struggling Jounin.

"Heh, fool."

Before Kakashi could react he was suddenly trapped in a spherical prison of chakra enhanced water, held firmly in place by Zabuza as the enemy shinobi held one arm in the sphere to maintain it.

"You may have been trying to escape to the water, but that was a big mistake." Zabuza chuckled. "Hehehe, I now have you in my inescapable special prison. It makes things tougher if you can move, you know?"

Zabuza looked back towards shore and performed a one-handed seal.

"Now…Kakashi, we can finish things later. First I'll take care of them."

Another Mizu bunshin formed on the land and began to stand up as Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna looked on in fear. There was still no sign of Naruto after Zabuza had sent him flying.

"Hehe, wearing forehead protectors and acting like real ninjas…" Zabuza chuckled again. "But you know what? A real ninja is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death. Basically…Once you're good enough to be listed in my handbook…then you can start calling yourself a ninja…You guys should not be referred to as ninjas."

Suddenly Zabuza's clone disappeared, only to reappear in from of Sasuke as he lashed out at the emo-teme with a powerful kick…

SLAM

…a kick that was stopped suddenly as Naruto appeared between the Mizu Bunshin and his teammate. He held his sword behind him with his left hand, the blade pointed down but ready to strike at any moment. His right arm was held up in a block, his forearm having caught and stopped the clone's kick without giving any ground. Around Naruto fluttered a faint aura of orange, barely visible to Kakashi and Zabuza, and only able to be sensed by Sakura and Sasuke in the form of a dread chill upon their souls.

"That's enough." Naruto said coldly, his eyes cold and focused like blue flame. Within his system was pumping a powerful combination of biological compounds, Mako, and demonic youki, turning Naruto from the outwardly happy prankster he showed to the world to the cold hard killer that was buried deep inside.

"Just a brat." Zabuza muttered as his clone backed off from the blond, who's only response was to adjust his stance, moving the massive blade like it weighed next to nothing to him and bringing it into a guard traditionally reserved for use with katana or broadswords, one hand forward with two fingers raised while the other was back and above his head holding the grip of his weapon.

"You guys!!!! Take Tazuna-san and run away!!! You have no chance of beating him!!" Kakashi called out frantically. "As long as he's keeping me trapped in this prison, he can't move. The water clone cannot go very far from his real body. Just run away now!!!"

Naruto's eyes narrowed and he went into him self, memories flooding through him.

_So even now, even seeing what I can do in two separate life-threatening situations, Kakashi-sensei stills doesn't think I'm ready? Maybe he's right, this foe is a Jounin for a reason, but I can't just leave my teammates to die, even if they don't recognize my talents._

A flash of purple flowed around Naruto's body briefly, an imperceptible flicker.

_My father died to protect everyone, myself included. I know he used me to hold the Kyuubi because he couldn't ask anyone else to make the sacrifice if he himself couldn't._

A second flash of purple flowed around Naruto's body briefly.

_Iruka-sensei recognized my skills, and he would have died to protect me. He almost did when Mizuki betrayed my trust and attempted to kill me._

There was a flash of green from the hilt of Naruto's weapon that bathed the entire weapon in a faint green glow for a moment.

_And now, even though he may favor Sasuke-teme and barely actually teaches me anything, Kakashi-sensei is willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure that we have a chance to survive._ "I WON'T LET HIM DIE!!!!"

This last part was screamed aloud as Naruto tightened his grip around his sword and with a flash of blue electricity began to crackle down the entire length of the blade. A moment later the blond boy swung the blade down with one hand, slamming the blade into the ground. To the surprise of everyone there a cutting blade of blue energy leapt forth from the blade, digging through the ground as it shot forth and sliced the surprised Mizu bunshin in half.

Naruto stared coldly as Zabuza's eyes widened in surprised. He didn't see it as he was entirely focused on his opponent, but all of his teammates and Tazuna had opened their eyes wide as well.

"Hey…you eyebrowless freak…Put this in your handbook." Naruto spoke coldly as he returned to his ready position. "The man who will one day become Hokage…"

Naruto's right hand formed a single seal that nobody recognized. Naruto was suddenly immersed in a cloud of smoke that then vanished in swirls of wind. As it cleared two identical copies of Naruto, each one holding the same sword out to their left as they swept the blades up and into identical ready stances as their creator.

"Konohagakure Ninja" Naruto finished. "UZUMAKI NARUTO!!"

Everyone stared at Naruto and his clones in surprise.

_Oh…that midget…he's not as super useless as I first thought…_ Tazuna thought to himself.

_That dobe! What is this power? How did he get so strong? I must have it!!_ Sasuke was thinking as he stared at Naruto, who was positively radiating power.

_What's this feeling? Is…is this really Naruto…?_ Sakura thought, not noticing a faint blush rising on her face as the figure before her had seemingly lost all sign of the annoying prankster who always asked her out for dates.

"Now…" Naruto said with a grin as he shifted into a new stance holding his blade down and behind him like he had when he had blocked Zabuza's kick. "…let's get wild!"

"A lot of arrogance but…" Zabuza said. "…do you stand a chance?"

_This is bad…_ Kakashi thought. Even if Naruto had been able to take down the Mizu bunshin with a surprise attack, there was no way he would be able to beat the Jounin.

"What are you doing?!! Run away!! This fight was over the moment I was caught!!" Kakashi yelled out to his student. "Our duty is to protect Tazuna-san!! Did you forget that?!!"

"Old man…" Naruto spoke softly as he glanced back over his shoulder at the old bridge builder, his face suddenly looking once again like the Naruto everyone knew and barely-tolerated, worry in his eyes for the first time since the fight truly began.

"Well… I planted this seed myself. I'm not going to say that I desire to live so much that I'd stop you." Tazuna said after a moment of thought. "I'm sorry guys…fight as much as you want."

Naruto smirked and turned forward. He didn't go cold again though, as the smirk remained plastered on his face.

"Hah…" Zabuza began to laugh. "Hahahaha…You guys will never grow up. Going to keep 'playing' ninja, eh?"

Zabuza closed his hand slightly and raised it. "When I was about your age…these hands were already dyed red with blood."

Naruto's eyes turned cold and the smirk left his face, replaced with fierce determination.

"And mine would have been too, had there not been three important people who looked out for me, and ten who taught me respect, responsibility, and duty." Naruto narrowed his eyes until they were slits.

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said with determination in his voice. "Sixth Lesson of Uzumaki Naruto, Trinity Blade."

The three Naruto clones blurred and suddenly vanished. They reappeared around Zabuza, one dropping towards him stabbing the sparking blade downwards, one racing towards him with the sparking blade extended to skewer him, and the third flying on a course to pass him with the sparking blade trailing ready to slice through Zabuza's chest.

Zabuza leapt up over both the slash and the chest stab, using his feet to grab the stabbing Naruto's head and fling him upwards into the path of the third and final attacker.

"Good." Zabuza said as he returned to his previous standing position. "But still not enough."

_He dodged it!!_ Sakura thought, sweating droplets now out of fear.

"Heh." Sasuke said, having noticed something that no one else had caught on to in the months they had been on a team with Naruto…

SWICK

…for every one of his clones you saw, there were at least four more waiting in the wings.

Zabuza released the water prison as he dodged away from the three kunai that would have embedded them selves along the length of his right arm, grabbing one as he moved. He leapt away from where Kakashi was now regaining his footing on the water and saw a fourth Naruto fall into the water behind him, the one who threw the kunai.

"Damn brat." Zabuza cried out as he sped across the water hoping to skewer Naruto with the kunai he had grabbed.

His momentum was suddenly halted as Kakashi appeared before him, blocking the kunai with the metal plate in the back of his hand.

"Kakashi-sensei!!" Sakura cried out, elated that her sensei had survived.

"Naruto, great plan." Kakashi reluctantly acknowledged as the blond-haired boy's head broke the surface again. "You guys have grown up."

Naruto smirked and then frowned. He could feel the combat high dropping.

_Damn, this fight lasted longer than either of the previous two combined. I can't keep this up for much longer._

Naruto focused as much of his remaining energy as he could and thanked the Kami that his instructors had made sure he knew how to swim. Taking a deep breath Naruto dove under the water, using the power of the Materia he had inserted in the bracer hidden under his jacket in order to increase his speed until he was speeding like a dolphin towards the shore. At the last second he curved his path up and went flying out of the water and over the heads of his surprised teammates as Kakashi spoke to Zabuza and the pair sized each other up once again.

_Only enough energy left for one last trick._ Naruto thought as he brought his hands together in the more familiar cross-shaped seal he used for what had fast become his favorite technique.

There was a puff of smoke and a clone of him appeared flying through the air below him and caught him just before their momentum carried them into the trees and out of sight.

_Now to take care of business before they find me._

Acting quickly Naruto pulled out a pair of small capsules and depressed the triggers, holding one in his left hand and over the bracer on his right arm while the one in his right hand was held pointing towards his sword. A red glow shot out from the two capsules and embraced both weapons, converting them to red energy after a moment and drawing them back into their capsules. As he stumbled to his feat and tucked the capsules away Naruto stepped out of the trees and looked forward to see Zabuza and Kakashi standing in the middle of the water and blurring through a series of hand seals at blinding speed.

"Naruto!" He heard Sakura call out, but for the life of him he couldn't understand why she would be worried about him when Kakashi-sensei was still fighting.

It was at this point that Naruto realized that the ground was approaching at a very rapid pace, and as he wondered what was going on his eyes closed and he drifted into unconsciousness' sweet embrace, dead to the world as his sensei fought to protect them all from the Demon of the Mist, Momochi Zabuza.

In four words, Uzumaki Naruto had fainted.

* * *

AN: I will admit, I seriously considered ending the chapter here, but I had made a commitment to writing the ENTIRE Wave Country Arc as a single chapter for this story. So enjoy, because at least half of the chapter is still to come.

* * *

When Naruto finally regained consciousness he found himself to be in an unknown strange location. From the feel of the air around him he was inside, most likely in a structure of some kind. He could feel vibrations in the floor that were indicative of people walking around, and his ears were registering vibrations that indicated he was hearing sounds, but Naruto's mind couldn't process the input yet. Slowly he changed his breathing, slowing it from the panicked racing it had been to a steady pace as he worked to sort out his senses. Slowly his hearing returned, and his panic abated momentarily as he recognized Kakashi's voice.

The blond boy shot upright and opened his eyes wide as soon as he realized what Kakashi had just said.

"Zabuza is alive!"

"What the hell do you mean?!!" Naruto cried out, causing the other occupants of the room, Sakura, Sasuke, the old drunk, Kakashi, and a dark-haired young woman that Naruto didn't recognize fell over in surprise as the blond boy shot to his feet, ignoring the faint pain he still felt in his limbs, an aftereffect of overtaxing his system using his abilities.

"Naruto, you're awake!!!" Sakura cried out as she ran to hug the blond boy, momentarily forgetting her annoyance with the baka for getting involved in a fight with a Jounin.

"Of course I'm awake." Naruto spoke with surprise in his voice while his blue eyes were glued on Kakashi's one visible eye. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Sakura finally realized her position and she leapt back from Naruto.

"Hey, don't get any ideas. I was just worried about you as a teammate, that's all! I love Sasuke-kun!" She yelled at him as she backed up to Sasuke, who Naruto saw had turned pale and was sweating like he usually did when around his fangirls.

"Whatever." Naruto muttered, dismissing the object of his crush as unimportant at the moment. "Kakashi-sensei, what do you mean Zabuza is still alive? Did you fail to defeat him after I passed out?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Unfortunately it was not I who defeated Zabuza, but a Kiri hunter-nin. I passed out from chakra exhaustion shortly thereafter. But now that I think back, I realize that the hunter-nin violated many rules of disposing of a deceased nuke-nin, so I am forced to assume that the hunter-nin was working with Zabuza and used the senbon needles to place him in a temporary coma to fake his death so that he could rescue him."

Naruto looked down at the ground thoughtfully as Sasuke and Sakura stared at Kakashi in surprise and worry. After a few moments Naruto looked up.

"Well, Kakash-sensei, what is our next move?"

Kakashi looked up at Naruto in surprise.

"How are you even up, Naruto? You knocked yourself out from chakra exhaustion as well, so you should still be down."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "I recover from injuries quickly, Kakashi-sensei. I've always just assumed it was a blood-line I'd received from my unknown parents."

Naruto stretched and then grinned seemingly back to his old self. Kakashi watched this sight and the sighed.

"Anyways, you guys will receive training."

"Training?" Sakura asked incredulously. "Sensei!! What's a little training going to do?!! Our enemy is a ninja you struggled against even with the Sharingan!!"

Sakura was channeling Inner Sakura, though none of her teammates knew that.

"Sakura…Who saved me while I was struggling?" Kakashi asked. "You guys are growing rapidly. Especially Naruto!!"

Kakashi eye smiled, drawing a narrowing of the eyes from Naruto. Sasuke looked at Naruto with a faint glare while Sakura looked at him with a thoughtful look on her face, unaware that a faint blush had formed.

_What the hell does he mean by saying that I've improved the most? I was already better than Sasuke-teme or Sakura-chan. He's just been too focused on Sasuke to notice me at all. _

"But obviously…This is just training until I get better. You won't be able to defeat him without me." Kakashi continued.

"But Sensei," Sakura asked as she returned her attention to him. "if Zabuza is alive he could attack at anytime, so should we really be training?"

"Yes, we should." Naruto said in answer, narrowing his eyes. "Because if Zabuza was as injured as Kakashi-sensei says he was, the he will need time to recover as well. Isn't that right, Sensei?"

Kakashi blinked in surprise.

"That's a very astute observation Naruto." He said. "But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. You've been surprising me left and right during this mission."

Naruto shrugged noncommittally to the faint-praise that Kakashi had paid him. He noticed Kakashi was surprised that Naruto had not smiled at receiving praise from the Jounin.

_What's going on? Naruto always seemed to smile a bit brighter whenever I praised him before. Could something be wrong with the-no, no, if there was I'm sure I'd feel it._

"Anyways, tomorrow I will take you into the forest and I'll tell you what you will be doing for training. But for now…"

Kakashi fell back onto the bed-pad he was laid out on and was asleep before anyone could react. Sakura and Naruto both had sweat drops on their foreheads while Sasuke sighed and exited the room, muttering to him self. Naruto promptly stood and began walking towards the other exit from the room. Sakura remained kneeling, looking between the two boys with a faint blush on her cheeks, trying to decide whether to run after her crush or her teammate. After a few moments she decided that whatever was wrong with Naruto he would get over it like he always did, but her Sasuke-kun would need her love to cheer up after having been little use in the battle.

As the pink-haired girl ran off, leaving the two surprised civilians alone in the room with Kakashi, she was unaware of Naruto standing just outside the door he had exited through, leaning against the wall.

As soon as he was sure that the pink-haired girl had followed Sasuke Naruto let out the breath he had been holding in a dejected sigh and shoved his hands in his pockets, heading off to take a walk and clear his head.

* * *

An hour later Naruto was still walking, having reached the edge of the Wave Country and deciding to follow the shore for a while in order to clear his head. He had tucked his hitai-ate in his jacket, just in case he encountered any potential hostiles while he walked, and his hair dropped over his eyes as a result. He had thought about many things in the past hour, ranging from evaluating his skills against those of Uchiha Sasuke, wondering why he still hoped that Sakura might see him for who he was and give him a chance, and wondering why he was so tired every time he drew on his abilities in a real combat situation.

The last part had been the easiest for him to answer, of course. He had a decent understanding of biology and physiology thanks to Aerith, and Cloud and Yuffie had practically shoved Materia and Jutsu theory down his throat over the years. He figured that it likely had to do with his altered biology and the changes carrying the Kyuubi no Kitsune had wrought on his body. His teachers had confided in him that he carried a second chakra source sealed inside him that was much closer to pure Mako in its makeup than to the chakra produced by most living beings.

His instructors had theorized that life on his world had developed a way to convert the faint Mako residue that permeated everything the Lifestream touched into a usable energy source called Chakra. However, demons like the Bijuu were most likely entities that had arisen from pure Mako itself, possibly altered by some rare confluence to utilize an existing life-form as a physical basis for manifestation. They had theorized that the beings were likely similar in nature to the Summons that would sometimes become bound to Materia, but there were distinct differences in the frequency this altered Mako, called Youki by the unimaginative Cloud since that was what the energy of the demons was called in the legends and history of the Planet, possessed as opposed to that of either Summons or any other Mako life-form on the Planet.

The first part had been easy as well. As far as Naruto knew Sasuke had been receiving special training from Kakashi-sensei, but the boy had shown no new jutsus in the past few months. Naruto figured that either the bastard was either hiding his skills, an option that Naruto found unlikely given how arrogant the last loyal Uchiha was, or he was just lazy and was merely waiting for Sharingan eye so he could just order people to show him techniques so he could copy them.

Naruto's money was on the latter.

He second part was the hardest part for the blond boy, by far. Even after everything he had gone through, he couldn't help but like Sakura. She was the smartest girl he knew…well, next to his Nee-chans. She was cute, and her chakra control was very impressive, even if she did need to work on her reserves more. No matter how many times she chose Sasuke over Naruto or hit Naruto for being a baka he just couldn't stop liking her.

Sighing to himself Naruto shelved the thoughts for later consideration, not realizing that the mental shelf he had placed them on was high, in a dark corner, dusty, and already covered by numerous such other thoughts that had lain there forgotten for months.

Uzumaki Naruto, King of Denial or King of Optimism, you decide.

Naruto was suddenly drawn out of his depressing thoughts by a glint of green down in a tidepool near the water's edge. Curious he carefully maneuvered over the craggy terrain to the pool and peered in. What he saw inside made his jaw drop in surprise and let out a cheer that he was sure must have been heard all the way to Konoha. Reverently he hoisted his find in his hands, brushing some loose seaweed off in order to get a better look. It was covered in barnacles that would need to be carefully removed, but it was without a doubt a Materia. The green crystal sphere glowed faintly as he gazed reverently into its depths, and Naruto once again failed to notice as his genuinely happy mood affected the plant life around him, causing it to grow and turn greener despite being out of the water.

Carefully Naruto wiped off the sphere and tucked it in his jacket before he turned and scrambled back over the rocks to solid ground. Excitedly he ran off back towards Tazuna's, his former gloom forgotten in the exhilaration of finding his ninth Materia. Not even the memory of how he received his eight could dampen his spirits.

* * *

**Flashback**

Team 7 had been training late into the afternoon on New Years Day, and as Kakashi dismissed his hot and sweaty team for the evening he pulled Sasuke aside as usual and pulled out a large scroll which he handed to the dark haired boy.

"Here, this is a technique scroll with a powerful Katon technique which I believe you should be able to master. It's a New Years present." Kakashi said blandly.

He was about to turn and leave when Naruto's voice piped up.

"Ne, sensei, what did you get me and Sakura for New Years?" The blond prankster asked energetically.

Kakashi sighed and thought quickly. He hit upon a bright idea and opened one of his kunai pouches and extracted a small pink-quartz hair clip and a small blue crystal sphere from it. He handed the hair clip to Sakura and tossed the sphere in Naruto's direction, not caring whether the blond dobe he got saddled with caught it or not.

"Here. Sasuke told me you liked collecting stones." Kakashi muttered before taking their shocked silence as an opportunity to shunshin away.

_Damn, I'll need some new tributes to leave at their graves now._ He thought sadly as he sped away.

Meanwhile Sakura was busy clipping the hair clip on and bugging Sasuke by asking if he thought she was cute while wearing it. Naruto on the other hand couldn't believe his luck.

_The bastard probably only gave us anything because he didn't get away before we asked so he couldn't be accused of favoritism, but boy will he be surprised when I reveal what these babies really are. I bet this one will be pretty useful for combat, too._

Naruto's grin as he ran all the way home was infectious, and more than a few people who normally glared at him found themselves grinning for a reason they couldn't understand. As the boy ran past the Yamanaka Flower Shop a surprised Ino Yamanaka watched as all the cut flowers and bulbs in the shop suddenly seemed to grow larger and brighter as they all burst into full vibrant bloom. She frantically called to her parents to come see what had happened, completely unaware of the source of the mysterious transformation.

**End Flashback**

* * *

The next morning Kakashi led his team into the forest into a small glade with tall trees ringing it. He was leaning on a crutch and was clearly exhausted, but the way he got his team ready to go that morning had gotten Naruto to actually believe for once that Kakashi-sensei was going to actually teach them something.

Boy was he ever wrong.

All Kakashi had done was explain how to perform a chakra exercise he called tree climbing, demonstrate how to do it, and left them to their own devices. This had of course ticked Naruto off, but he had refused to let it disrupt his chakra control. He merely pretended that it had. As soon as Kakashi had left he had promptly made it to the top of the tree just as Sakura had on her first try.

Or rather, he walked calmly to the top and hung upside down from a tree branch while Sakura had had to run up the tree to get going and then sat on a branch. This of course drew an angry glare from Sasuke and a surprised blush from Naruto, both of which just ticked him off further.

_Are these two really so wrapped up in their own little worlds that they never saw past the façade? Hell, they keep looking surprised even after that fight with Zabuza._

Inwardly Naruto shivered. He had gotten damn lucky in that fight and he knew it. He had taken Zabuza by complete surprise because the older man had assumed that as a genin Naruto wouldn't be able to do anything. He was certain though that Zabuza wouldn't underestimate him the second time around, so he would have to make sure that he had a way to surprise the man again. And that meant completing aspects of his training that he had been delaying work on because he wouldn't be able to hide the changes in his skills once they were done.

Ignoring Sasuke's question of "How the hell did you do that, dobe?!" and Sakura's "When did you get so good Naruto?!" the blond hopped to the ground and tucked his hands in his jackets as he walked off into the forest.

"I'm going to go train. I'll meet you all back at Tazuna's this evening."

Naruto had a lot to think about, and a lot of preparations to make.

* * *

The next three days passed relatively uneventfully for the members of Team 7. Sakura joined Kakashi in guarding Tazuna during the day since she had mastered the tree climbing exercise the fastest. Naruto kept disappearing every morning and Kakashi just assumed that the blond boy was too embarrassed to admit that he needed help with mastering tree climbing. Sasuke was too annoyed to reveal otherwise, ashamed that the dobe had beaten him at something and driven to master it as well, and Sakura was too busy thinking about Sasuke to realize that Naruto should have been joining her in guarding the old drunk.

Naruto on the other hand spent most of his time in the forest, having found a large meadow that served his purposes perfectly. When he had arrived he had promptly summoned over four hundred clones and detailed them to practicing. Fully a quarter of the clones was working on each of the variations of his personal fighting style, and the remaining three dozen or so were all in a small corner of the field working on something that Naruto had challenged himself to do.

Four of the clones each wore copies of Naruto's bracer, but with a different Materia insert into each one. Another four clones were acting as antagonists, using Naruto's sword and attempting to stop the clones from attacking. Off to the side eight more clones sat and observed, watching what each attacking and casting clone did correctly and what they needed to improve. Whenever a member of a pair was dispelled the observing clones would create a new copy of that one of their number, and thus the training would continue.

Another dozen stood in front of a work table that Naruto had produced from a capsule and were working carefully on manufacturing modified kunai. It was an idea that Naruto had had years before after nearly blowing himself up while working on some explosive, and he had decided that given the number of unknowns involved with this mission that having some specialized demolitions ready would be a great asset to his team. Thus he had twelve of his clones hollowing out and filling kunai with his Special Explosive Powder Number Three and then filling the holes with the special detonators that Naruto had designed with Barret's help. Each completed kunai was then attached to a long wire and stored in a special roll.

The remaining sixteen clones had gathered in a circle around Naruto as he sat on top of a rock in the clearing. Each clone had their hands held before them in a Tori seal and their eyes closed. Around the gathering the winds had swirled and howled as Naruto retreated within him self.

It was this sight that greeted Hatake Kakashi when he went to investigate his student's disappearances on the fourth day.

* * *

**_..N..o.._**

**_..N...ar...o... _**

**_..Naru..o.._**

**_..Naruto.._**

The almost ethereal voice had been pushing at the back of Naruto's mind for months, and once again it had begun to intrude as he attempted to commune with Nature. Naruto attempted to ignore it, but no matter what he did he couldn't block it out completely, and it was really starting to get on his nerves. His patience wasn't infinite, and it had in fact taken him a lot of hard work to develop what he had.

So it was no surprise that his ability to ignore the vaguely feminine voice finally broke down under the stress of his mission.

"WHAT?!" He yelled into the darkness of his mind, the communion broken.

The only response was the sound of a girl giggling and two whispered words that vanished as quickly as the wind.

_..at last.._

The giggling continued as Naruto felt the vaguely familiar presence drift away. Sighing and realizing that he wasn't going to be able to concentrate properly Naruto opened his eyes, taking in the sight of all sixteen of his guardians eyeing him worriedly. Blinking, Naruto realized that he was lying on his back on the ground staring up at the clouds rather than sitting in his meditative position. Naruto looked to one of the clones, a question on his lips.

"I'm sorry, but the winds suddenly grew wilder and we lost control. Part of the vortex slammed into you and knocked you off of the rock. Are you all right?" One of his clones said as two more reached down and pulled Naruto to his feet.

"Yes, I'm all right. I just had a really odd experience, that's all." He replied as he dusted himself off. Looking up Naruto realized how late it was getting and turned to the only one of his clones to appear different than the rest. This one wore a dark black bodysuit that clung tightly to her feminine curves and her short blond hair hung loosely around her face. "Sera, I want you to tell the others we're done for the day and then dispel yourself. You all did good work, I'm proud of you."

Sera was an altered clone, the result of an experiment of Naruto's combining the Kage Bunshin with his modified Henge that had gone awry. Rather than creating a Kage Bunshin that had already been transformed using the solid-form Henge that Naruto had developed in his search for the ultimate anti-pervert technique the experiment had instead produced a clone that was for all extents and purposes solid, unless she took too much damage or was knocked unconscious that was. This clone resembled a teenage version of Naruto's Oiroke transformation, but with short blond hair and wearing a matte-black body suit. She had also somehow developed her own personality, and Naruto had discovered that if he attempted to use his new technique again he just managed to summon her with all her memories and his intact. She had since become an invaluable tool in his training, able to direct the clones in their training while he was otherwise preoccupied with meditation.

"Whatever. Just make sure you keep your promise and summon me next time we're near a place that sells ramen." Sera muttered back as she turned toward the mass of worried clones, performing a few hand signs that told the mass to dispel them selves. Smirking and crossing her arms, silently pleased that of all Naruto's clones _she_ alone was special, Sera walked back over to her creator as he was gathering the remaining explosive supplies and storing them away and bent over, kissing him lightly on the cheek before dispelling her self.

Naruto just looked up in surprise, a blush rapidly spreading on his face. Even in the two months since he had created her, he still hadn't gotten used to the cold girl who never smiled.

Shaking his head to clear it of disturbing thoughts he hurried and finished up putting his gear away before he headed off into the forest, heading back to Tazuna's house.

* * *

That night Naruto had noticed Kakashi looking at him with an appraising eye over dinner, but when Naruto raised his eyebrow in question Kakashi just eye smiled and went back to somehow eating without taking off his mask. Naruto had shook his head and muttered something about "perverted old shinobi" before he went back to his meal. When he finished his meal and got up to leave he didn't notice the thoughtful look that Kakashi had on his face.

_Just what are you playing at, Naruto? Oh well, it doesn't matter. Soon Sasuke's Sharingan will awaken and then I can have you demonstrate your techniques for him so he can improve. The stronger you get just means the stronger I can help him become._

If Naruto had known what Kakashi really thought of him, he'd have left Team 7 after their mission was over. As it was, he had months of being treated as nothing more than a tool to fuel Sasuke's competitive spirit to look forward to. If only Sharingan Kakashi had been able to look beyond Naruto's prisoner and his record as a prankster and seen the young man that stood before him, perhaps he could have forged a friendship with the other member of his team tied to his past.

But Kakashi, like so many others, only saw Naruto as the jailor of the fox, not someone who would one day change the world.

* * *

The next two days passed much the same as the first. Sasuke finally got up the nerve after his constant failures to ask Sakura's advice on the tree-climbing and had begun to make progress. Sakura continued to guard Tazuna and escort Tsunami into town, and the depressing atmosphere of the town had begun to get her spirits down. And Naruto had continued to train himself into the ground.

He had given up on communing with Nature, since every time he tried that strange voice kept interrupting his focus. So instead he had taken to training him self into the ground fighting multiple opponents. At the end of the seventh day he finally felt that he was ready to put his abilities to the test in actual combat and he fought alone against over four hundred of his clones, Sera off to the side with a pair of clones just in case Naruto was defeated or lost consciousness.

None of them detected the clone of Hatake Kakashi observing them from the trees.

* * *

In her icy realm Shiva watched over Naruto, nervous because of what she knew was coming. Naruto was precariously close to a shatterpoint, a point in the channels of Fate that was inevitable and had far reaching consequences. Everything beyond it was blurry, hard to see. The possibilities were ever changing, and the fate of everything involved hung by a thread over an abyss of chaos.

Silently the stern Summon wished Naruto the best of luck, for the results of what was to come was out of even her hands.

* * *

Naruto woke the next morning to sun streaming through the window of Tazuna's house. Groaning as he sat up and rubbed his eyes the memories of the previous night slowly came flooding back. He remembered returning well after dark, exhausted and bruised from his training. He remembered dismissing his clones before entering the house, reassuring his surprised teammates that he was alright and that he just needed a bit of rest after training hard all day. He remembered an argument with Tazuna's grandson Inari and vaguely yelling something at the brat. He remembered Kakashi telling him that they would all be escorting Tazuna to work on the bridge early the next morning. He remembered stumbling up the stairs and falling onto his bed pad.

_Wait…Escorting Tazuna early this morning?! SHIT!_

Naruto shot to his feet as he realized that the sun was at least two thirds of the way to its highest point in the sky and that the other bed pads in the room with him were vacant.

"Hey, where's everyone?" He asked as he rushed downstairs, already slipping his bandolier and equipment on under his jacket.

"Oh! Naruto, you're already awake?" Tsunami replied from where she was kneeling and knitting in the main room. "Your sensei said that you should rest…"

"I knew it! They left me behind!!" Naruto yelled as he frantically ran out the door, worry gripping his heart. If Zabuza showed up when he wasn't there, he sincerely doubted that the Uchiha-teme and Sakura would be able to handle things while Kakashi was preoccupied with the Demon of the Mist.

As Naruto left the house and leapt into the trees, intent on reaching the bridge as soon as possible, Naruto heard the sounds of two people conversing in the woods. He pulled up short and silently crept towards the pair of male voices.

_No one should be out this far. Everyone is too scared to associate with Tazuna._

When the sources of the two voices finally came into view Naruto's eyes narrowed and a switch was flipped. Below him walked two mercenary samurai, each with a katana strapped to their hips. Frowning Naruto performed a series of hand seals ending with a strange one that had Kakashi been there he wouldn't have recognized. There was a silent puff of smoke and when it cleared Sera was revealed standing on the branch next to Naruto.

"Those two guys are likely some of Gatou's goons. He probably sent them to kidnap or kill Tazuna's daughter and grandson." Naruto said, cutting to the chase. It had long since become clear that if business was involved Sera didn't like wasting time with unnecessary conversation.

Naruto performed a cross-shaped seal and the duo was joined by ten clones emerging from a cloud of smoke.

"Follow them, learn what you can, then take care of them. Avoid revealing yourself at all costs Sera. Deploy a single clone only unless the situation becomes dangerous. Do not hesitate to dispel a clone to send a message to me."

Sera and the clones all nodded in the affirmative as Naruto handed a capsule to Sera. The blond girl took it silently and tucked it into a pouch at her hip.

"What do you wish me to do once the threat has been neutralized?" Sera asked in her cold emotionless voice.

"Determine if there is any further threat. If there is, remain with the clones and prepare defenses. If there isn't, leave one clone masquerading as me, the rest in the trees as guards, and dispel your self. I may have need of your assistance if Zabuza shows up at the bridge, a possibility I am now certain of since Gatou appears to be making his move at last."

Sera nodded and then she and the ten clones were gone in the blink of an eye. Naruto narrowed his eyes further and then turned away, speeding off through the forest to meet up with his team.

He hoped he wasn't too late.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Haku had Sasuke pinned down in a dome of ice mirrors. The masked boy was moving so fast he could barely be seen, and he was quickly wearing Sasuke down with his senbon assault. So Zabuza and everyone else was surprised when Haku was knocked free from one of the mirrors by a thrown shuriken.

There was a large puff of smoke and a voice echoed from within as the cloud slowly dissipated.

"I told you before, Zabuza. The man who will one day become Hokage, Konohagakure Shinobi…" Naruto's voice echoed as the smoke cleared to reveal him in a crouch with his right arm held forward with a kunai grasped in it and his right arm held down and behind his back. "UZUMAKI NARUTO!!!"

Hakua and Zabuza both wasted no time in responding, both lashing out with a flurry of shuriken and senbon. Naruto narrowed his eyes and tensed his body up.

_I've got one shot at this…_

Just as the sharp and pointy projectiles were about to collide with him the senbon needles impacted with the shuriken, knocking them out of the air. As Zabuza turned to ask Haku why he had interfered Naruto's eyes narrowed further, remembering the morning of the seventh day.

* * *

Naruto had been getting up before the sun even rose all week, choosing to enjoy the dawn in meditation before he began training for the day. On this particular day though he was interrupted in his meditation by a strange woman with long black hair.

"You'll catch a cold sleeping in a place like this." She had said.

Naruto had sat up in surprise.

"Hehe, sorry." He replied as he stood and stretched. "I must have fallen over while I was meditating."

The next half hour had been peaceful, even while something about his companion nagged at him. Why was she so familiar?

As they talked Naruto felt relaxed, finally having a chance to speak to someone who didn't know how he was treated, who just saw him as a normal boy.

It wasn't until he had said good buy and the woman had informed him as she walked away that she was actually a boy that Naruto frowned. As the girl, Haku, disappeared into the trees, Naruto finally figured out why she/he had seemed so took a deep breath, smelling the air around him.

Yes, there could be no mistake. Haku had been the Hunter-nin at the lake.

Sighing, Naruto had headed off to begin his training for the day, unaware that Uchiha Sasuke had been observing him from the trees.

* * *

"So you don't want me to interfere, Haku?" Zabuza asked. "You're as soft as always…"

Taking that as Zabuza's assent to Haku's request Naruto narrowed his eyes and focused on everything before him. The way Sakura was covering Tazuna. The way Kakashi and Zabuza were in a stand off. Sasuke on the ground in the middle of that strange dome of ice mirrors. Haku standing between him and his teammate.

_Even if he never sees me as anything other than a dobe, I can't let him die._

Naruto glowed with a faint blue light for a moment before suddenly he leapt forward.

_Ice._ Naruto noted as he approached the mirrors.

Swiftly he sped between two of the mirrors, grabbing Sasuke with his free arm as he attempted to get them free of the trap.

SWISH

Naruto was brought up short as Haku suddenly passed before him, launching a barrage of senbon at him.

"I can't let you leave."

Naruto let Sasuke take his own footing and the blond boy drew another kunai. As he frantically tried to track Haku's movements through the mirrors and discover what the trick was Sasuke came to the same realization about the mirrors that Naruto had just a minute before.

"GOUKAKYU NO JUTSU!!" Sasuke cried out, blasting at the mirror where Haku was with the most powerful Katon jutsu currently in his arsenal. The flames burned around the mirror, but all they did was melt the barest amount of frost off of the mirror.

"You can't melt this ice with that level of fire." Haku replied from within the mirror.

Naruto frowned and looked down at his hand. He had palmed a small capsule when he drew his kunai, but he wasn't sure if it would be enough. And it would be wasteful to unveil an advantage if it wouldn't be of use.

"Damn." He heard Sasuke mutter.

Another barrage of senbon knocked both of the genin off of their feet. As Naruto struggled to his feet he groaned and removed one of the senbon that had struck dangerously close to the tendon in his arm. Silently he slipped the capsule in his hand back into his bandolier and then dropped the two kunai he held to the ground.

"Damn it!!" Naruto muttered. "I can't die here…I have a dream I must fulfill…"

"Becoming a true shinobi is difficult for me…" Haku spoke softly. "If possible, I don't want to have to kill you. Nor want you to have to kill me. But if you come at me, I can destroy my kind heart with a blade and become a true shinobi. This bridge is the place where we fight…to connect to our dreams."

Naruto looked up at Haku in surprise, his fear currently held at bay as he listened to Haku reveal a little bit of his heart.

"Me, for my dream. And you for your dreams. Please don't hate me. I want to protect someone precious to me. To work for that person. To fight for that person. To make that person's dreams come true. That is my dream. For that, I can become a shinobi. I can kill you."

Naruto and Sasuke both smirked back at Haku, determined for different reasons.

"SASUKE-KUN!!! NARUTO!!! DON'T LOSE TO THAT GUY!!!" Sakura's voice came to them from outside the dome.

The next several minutes were pure hell. Even with his enhanced speed Naruto had been unable to catch Haku, instead being worn down by lucky hits from Haku's senbon delivered via Haku's still superior speed. He had repeatedly used his Water Kick and Beat Rush in an attempt to catch the speedy shinobi, but no matter what he did he was just too slow, and he could feel his vast energy stores beginning to wane. He was still struggling to get back to his feet from where he had fallen after Haku's latest barrage when Sasuke suddenly appeared in front of him, having taken the latest flurry of senbon intended for him.

"Geez, all you ever do is get in the way…" He heard Sasuke mutter as Naruto looked up at him in surprise.

_Why the hell did he take the hits? I thought he hated the 'dobe'?_

"What's with the face you moron…" Sasuke muttered again as he coughed up some blood.

"Why?" Naruto asked, the fear beginning to grip his heart in its vice-like grip and the faint aura of orange chakra around him, invisible to all but the most perceptive of shinobi, began to darken towards red.

"How should I know…I hated you…Even though sensei never saw it…I was always watching you surpass me…"

"But…why? Why me? I never asked for your help!!!!" Naruto cried out. The fear was closing around his heart, and the blond shinobi was worried that he had just let his teammate die, all because he hadn't been strong enough to defeat the opponent quickly enough.

"I don't know…My body just moved on its own…idiot…" Sasuke said as he fell backwards. Naruto caught him and settled him carefully to the ground.

"That man…My brother…I told myself I wouldn't die until I killed him…" Sasuke coughed up a little blood. "Naruto…for me, please…don't die also…"

Naruto just stared down at Sasuke, surprised to find tears forming in his eyes as his body shook.

"He landed a blow on me and without flinching died to protect you. To protect a precious person, knowing it was a trap, he was able to still jump in. He is a shinobi that deserves respect." Haku spoke as he got back to his feet. "Is this your first death of a friend? This is the way of the shinobi."

"Shut up…" Naruto bit out as he felt the surge rising, stronger and faster than it had any time before. He felt an alien power welling up inside him, a burning fire of rage and anger and the desire to tear and rend.

"**I'LL KILL YOU!!!"** He screamed out as his body suddenly became surrounded by a rising spiral of red chakra that tore up the ground around him. He was radiating so much power that it carried a killing intent all its own. His eyes had already turned slitted and red, and his whisker marks and his canines had both grown more prominent.

As Naruto began to stand up the spiral of power peaked above him, taking on the appearance of a ghostly grinning fox face, growling down at Haku.

_That's impossible for the chakra to change like this!!! And such an evil chakra…!!!_

Haku watched in shock as chakra poured off of Naruto's skin, the visible wounds on his hands appearing to burn off, revealing unblemished skin beneath them. Naruto turned his head to look at Haku and the ice-wielder suddenly felt his heart crushed as if it were in a vice. The killing intent radiating off of Naruto was practically visible to the nuke-nin.

Naruto faced Haku and crouched before suddenly leaping into the air towards the mirror where Haku was hiding, a feral guttural growl emanating from his throat. The ice wielder launched several senbon towards his changed opponent, and watched in surprise as Naruto roared and lashed out with a round kick with his right leg. The air around his leg seemed to ripple for a moment before literally exploding in flaming waves and the senbon were deflected away before they could even make contact with the feral blond boy.

Haku decided to attempt a direct attack as Naruto landed on the ground and looked around him for his opponent. Haku took two senbon in hand and launched directly downward in an attempt to catch Naruto by surprise. It was not to be however as before Haku was even halfway to him Naruto had blurred and vanished. Haku was prepared to push off the ground and race for another mirror when Naruto appeared behind him and slammed him into the ground with a wild thrust kick to his back.

Haku struggled to his feet and barely managed to dodge a wild haymaker from Naruto who had his now claw-like fingers extended and was attempting to tear out Haku's throat. Naruto roared and leapt towards Haku again, blurring out of sight for a moment before the first of his kicks collided, launching Haku into the air. The dark-haired boy barely had time to register the impact before Naruto followed him into the air and lashed out with a round house kick. Again the air around his leg appeared to ripple like water and hefore it ignited into flames as it connected, blowing Haku out of the dome straight through one of his mirrors, shattering the ice and chakra construct in the process.

Haku went skidding over fifty feet away from the dome, and as he got to his feet his mask cracked and dropped the ground. He watched with dead eyes as Naruto crouched, his feral appearance sparking a piece of primal fear in his heart. He watched with fear as Naruto let out another roar and then sped forward, his arm pulled back and glowing with an aura of red chakra as the blond boy prepared to punch Haku in the face.

_I can not defeat this boy…Zabuza-san…_

As Naruto saw Haku's face the resurgence of memories from their pleasant meeting in the forest fought with the beast inside him. It wasn't much, but it was enough to monetarily stem the tide of demonic youki that had been pouring forth from within him. Naruto paused for the barest of moments, to allow recognition to appear in his eyes, before he completed the punch.

But with the loss of the demonic youki he had also ceased channeling all energy, and his punch was only powerful enough to knock Haku back and cause the boy to spit up blood.

"What happened to your intensity? You can't kill me with that…" Haku said as he got to his feet.

"Why?" Naruto asked quietly, his eyes cold but betraying the conflicting emotions he was feeling. "Why is that guy precious to you? Why someone like that, a bad guy who takes money from a criminal to kill an innocent person who is just trying to support his family and his people? **Is that eyebrowless freak the only important person to you?!! Well?!! Is he?!!"** Naruto practically screamed the last part as the orange-red chakra suddenly surged around him again, a whirling fire of primal rage that radiated power unlike anything that Haku had ever felt before in his life.

Haku remained silent for a few moments before finally replying in a soft voice.

"I had people very dear to me…a long time ago…My parents."

The storm of chakra around Naruto abated until it was a faint ambient orange glow as Naruto and Haku held one another's gazes, Naruto's eyes showing signs of emotion.

"I was born in a small snowy village in the country of mist. I was happy…my parents were very kind people. But….when I grew up and began to learn the ways of the world, something happened."

"What happened?" Naruto asked, remembering his own brutal awakenings to the ways of the world, and those that had done their best to life him free of the darkness.

"This blood." Haku said as he wiped some blood off of his lip. "My father killed my mother, then he tried to kill me. The Country of Mist had endless civil wars, and those with Kekkei Genkai came to be hated. Because of these abilities, clans with such special bloodlines were used as weapons in countless battles. As a result, these blood clans were blamed for bringing misfortune and war to the country."

Haku looked down towards the ground sadly.

"My mother was from one of these bloodlines. My father discovered this…and by the time I realized what I had done, I had killed him, my own father!!"

Naruto felt a faint tear at flow from his eye.

"And at that time…I thought of myself as…no, I had no choice but to think that, and I realized the most painful thing…That in this world, I am a person who is unwanted."

Naruto's eyes widened as he finally realized that the boy standing before him was much like he had been as a child, alone in the world until someone who cared had appeared. For Haku it must have been Zabuza. And for Naruto, it had been his guardians, his teachers…his family.

"You said to me you wanted to become the best ninja in your village and have everyone acknowledge you. Now if someone who acknowledged you from the bottom of their heart appeared…wouldn't that someone become the most important person to you?"

Naruto's eyes widened as images flashed through his mind. Iruka, who had acknowledged him, his family, who had chosen him out of the entire world, the Hokage, who always made sure he was taken care of…and even Sasuke, who in the end had acknowledged him.

"Zabuza-san took me in knowing I was a person with a Kekkei Genkai…this blood that everyone hated…he desired it...I was so happy!!"

Naruto could see tears leaking from Haku's eyes as the older boy cried.

"Naruto-kun…Please…Kill me…"

Naruto looked at Haku, who stood there with tears in his eyes as he smiled sadly. But no matter what, Naruto just couldn't draw on his anger or hatred at Haku for killing Sasuke. It just wouldn't come.

No.

It was more like it just wasn't there any longer. When one truly understands another person that is like them selves they cannot help but pity them.

"Please hurry and kill me. Why are you hesitating?"

"Why would I do that you idiot!?!" Naruto yelled back in response, surprising Haku. "You are beaten, there is no reason to fight anymore. Just stand down and you don't have to die."

Haku sighed. "The day I met you in the forest…I thought you were like me…you should be able to understand…I'm sorry that you will have to stain your hands…"

"Is…is this the only way…?" Naruto asked, clenching his fists and grinding his teeth. Naruto did not want to hurt anybody if he could help it. Yes, there were times when it was necessary and sometimes even inevitable, but that didn't stop him from trying to end things without death.

"Yes..!!" Haku replied.

Naruto closed his eyes as he heard Haku tell him to follow his own dreams.

"Haku…If we'd met under different circumstances…we might've become friends. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Naruto raised his right arm and pointed it towards Haku, looking away in shame as a green glow began to surround his arm and hand.

"Thank you." Haku said as he felt the energy build. It felt similar to the roaring red power that had encompassed Naruto before, but at the same time absolutely alien. It felt more peaceful, and Haku felt that whatever was about to happen was likely the kindest death Naruto could bestow upon him.

Just as Naruto opened his mouth and began to speak Haku's eyes widened.

"I'm sorry Naruto. I can't die yet!" Haku said, performing a hand seal and vanishing in a water shunshin.

As Naruto whispered "Blizzara" and a massive crystalline spire shot up from the ground where Haku had been standing moments before there was a massive splash of blood where Kakashi had just been about to run the prone Zabuza through using his Raikiri. Haku had moved in front of the attack, taking the brunt of the damage and saving Zabuza's life, at least for the moment.

Tazuna, Sakura, and Naruto all stared in shock as Haku spoke his last words.

"Zabuza…san…"

Zabuza's eyes hardened.

"My future is death? Heh…you're wrong again, Kakashi." Zabuza said, remaining silent for a few moments. Finally he chuckled lightly. "Great job…Haku."

As Kakashi realized that Haku was already dead Zabuza grabbed his Kubikiri Houchou and prepared to slice through both Kakashi and the dead corpse of Haku.

"I sure picked up something useful!! Giving me this final chance!!"

Zabuza swung, but Kakashi vanished before the blade hit, reappearing nearby and letting Haku to the ground gently.

"Naruto, stay out of this. This is my fight."

The blond shinobi walked over and stood by Haku as Kakashi stood back up to face Zabuza.

"Naruto!!! You're alright!!!"

The blond boy turned his head to look at Sakura, the pain of what he had witnessed and the loss he was already feeling visible on his face and in his bright blue eyes.

"Huh? What about Sasuke-kun? Naruto!! Where is Sasuke-kun!?!!!"

Naruto's eyes widened and then he looked away, closing them tightly in an attempt to prevent the tears from falling.

_I failed…to protect him…_

"Kakashi! This is no time for sightseeing!!"

Naruto had is eyes closed too tightly to see Kakashi intercept Zabuza's rush with a side kick to the taller man's chest, nor did he see Sakura run past on her way to check on Sasuke with Tazuna in tow. He didn't witness as the two rushed one another a second time, nor as Kakashi disabled Zabuza's right arm, leaving him unable to perform seals or lift his sword.

He did hear as an unknown knew voice echoed out of the mists obscuring the end of the bridge.

"Ooh…you're getting your ass kicked. How disappointing…"

Zabuza and Kakashi both turned their attentions towards the new voice while Naruto finally opened his eyes. All three took in the sight of a short fat businessman wearing dark sunglasses and leaning on a cane standing before a mob of several hundred mercenaries.

"Gatou. Why are you here? And what's with all these men!?" Zabuza asked, already fearing that he knew the answer.

"Hehehe, the plan has changed…Well actually, I planned to do this from the beginning. Zabuza, I'm going to have you killed here."

"What?"

"I never planned on paying you any money. Hiring a normal ninja from the village is expensive, and they may betray me. So I get you missing-nins who are easy to take care of afterwords. I have the ninjas battle each other and once they're weakened I kill them off with numbers…It doesn't cost me anything, good plan don't you think?"

Gatou was clearly going to say something else, but a certain enraged blond interrupted.

_So Haku died for nothing? He died for nothing more than a corrupt bastards manipulations, a bastard who would have had Haku killed regardless of whether we defeated him or not. This will not __**stand!!!**_

Naruto gazed out over the collection of mismatched mercenaries and criminals, and the rage within him rose once again like a hurricane upon the coast, obliterating his self-control and his compassion as easily as a hurricane would obliterate a city on the coast.

"**Shut the fuck up** **you bastards!!!**" He screamed as he leapt into the air, pulling out a scroll and unrolling it above his head. Naruto floated in the air, surrounded by a turbulent vortex of red chakra as the scroll finished unrolling.

"**Ending Cry!!!**"

The scroll was nearly forty feet long and as the shocked shinobi behind him and Gatou's mercenaries before him watched thousands of kunai began pouring forth from the scroll, each one connected by a thin black metallic wire. Some of the kunai impacted the gathered mercenaries, but that appeared to be simply because there were just so damn many of them. Kakashi, even with his Sharingan, had lost count, and Zabuza couldn't even see the individual kunai as they flew down. As the storm continued to rain down his eyes widened as he realized just how outmatched he and Haku had been against this mere boy. For whatever reason, the boy had not used or was not even aware of his full potential, and that fact alone scared the Demon of the Mist to his very soul.

As the storm finally seemed to let off Naruto remained floating in the air, still surrounded by the red flaming chakra. On the bridge before him nearly a third of Gatou's mercenaries had been outright killed, while most of the others were mortally wounded or struggling to regain their feet. At the back of the crowd the fat pompous businessman himself looked up at Naruto in horror and fear. The gathered survivors could see a pair of thin black wires running from the field of kunai to Naruto's outstretched hands, and as they watched a red glow appeared in one hand and suddenly the massive sword he had used against Zabuza appeared in front of him, floating in the air between his hands, the scroll still floating over his head and glowing red.

"Now, you will all pay for your sins. This Planet must be cleansed if it is to survive.

There was a crackling of lightning between the blade and Naruto's hands.

"**Thundara!!!**"

Suddenly the entire field of mercenaries screamed in pain as the kunai and the wires connecting them were all bathed in the blue glow of the lightning streaking through the wires. Their pained cries and screams of anguish did not last for more than a second though, as the second half of Naruto's attack resolved itself.

Kakashi forced Zabuza to the ground as Sakura hastily did the same with Tazuna, covering Sasuke's body in the process, the four barely reaching a horizontal position before the end of the bridge was literally consumed in a blaze of fire as bright as the sun. The wind and debris hurtling past them threatened to blow them all away, and more than one of them received cuts and bruises from the impacts or the wind itself. When the light and wind from the explosion had finally died down the four struggled to their feat, shaking their heads in an attempt to clear the ringing in their ears.

Before them the entire end of the bridge where Gatou's mercenaries had stood was gone. The ground in front of Naruto, who was still floating in the air, melted and was still glowing red hot; but beyond that there was nothing but a cloud of steam and smoke that rose into the sky like a mushroom cloud. As Naruto slowly floated back down to earth he dropped the wires he had still been holding onto as he reached out and clasped his sword firmly in his left hand. A moment later a red glow surrounded the blade and it seemed to compress and disappear, much to the surprise of all watching. A few moments later the scroll above his head rolled itself back up and dropped into Naruto's waiting right hand. The flames around Naruto slowly died away and the blond boy turned to face Zabuza, Kakashi, and the others.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He said with tears in his eyes as he dropped to his knees, shedding tears for all those that Fate had given him no choice but to destroy. The sky suddenly sparked with thunder and it began to rain large heavy droplets, as if the Planet itself were crying with Naruto.

Further down the bridge Zabuza collapsed by Haku as Kakashi looked on, reaching out one hand to stroke the boy's cheek tenderly before the Demon of the Mist passed into the Great Beyond with the boy he had considered a son.

* * *

Thanks to Naruto's final attack repairs to the bridge were delayed by another week, meaning that Team 7 would have to remain in the Wave for another month after the battle of the bridge. Naruto had judiciously used his Kage Bunshin to speed the process up though, so they managed to complete the bridge in just over half that time. Naruto him self merely made the clones and directed them to assist the builders in any way required, while he him self dug two graves for Zabuza and Haku by hand, and used his skills to carve a proper memorial for them from a piece of obsidian he had found near the tidepools. He was fairly certain it must have been a relic from when the land that was now above sea level had been birthed at the bottom of the ocean, but he didn't question his luck in finding it. The glossy black pure stone had seemed to him the perfect memorial to the pair.

What had been an irregular chunk of rock had become a four-sided pyramid much like Konoha's memorial stone. Naruto had inscribed Haku and Zabuza's names on one side, and the symbols for loyalty, devotion, and family on the other three sides. As one last memorial to the boy who had reminded him so much of him self, Naruto had embedded Zabuza's blade in a slot in the top of the stone, and had summoned Shiva to ask for a boon. The goddess, proud that Naruto had survived the challenges of the shatterpoint, had acquiesced to his request.

Haku and Zabuza's grave stone would sit perpetually in a circle of snow, Zabuza's sword fused into the stone by a layer of unbreakable, eternal blue ice, both the sword and the pyramidal stone encased in a layer to ensure that they were never disturbed. On the day that Team 7 finally left the Wave Country Naruto had said his last good byes, placing the broken pieces of Haku's mask on top of his grave before walking away to meet his team at the bridge.

When he had arrived neither Sakura nor Sasuke said a word, merely nodding at him, Sakura shooting a small faint smile. Kakashi had merely waved his team onward and the four began to trek across the bridge back to the Fire Country, the populace of the Wave cheering as they went.

As they stepped off of the bridge on the Konoha side Inari reached up and pulled on Tazuna's arm.

"Ne, grandpa. We haven't named the bridge yet."

Tazuna looked up at the retreating shinobi, a thoughtful look on his face. As he saw Naruto pause for a moment and gaze back at them with a sad look in his eyes Tazuna smiled faintly.

"I think that we will call it…"

* * *

AN: Ah, another chapter finished. I hope you all enjoyed it. I'm sorry if it seemed long, but I personally felt that I did not want to do the Wave Arc in multiple chapters like with other stories. I decided that for this one I wanted to work on the entire arc straight through as a single chapter, especially since it allowed me to rewrite a few scenes to match changes I decided to make later on. And yes, I know that I am evil for not telling you what the bridge was being named, but I did that for a reason. Namely, I want to leave you all in the dark as to what it has been named until Naruto and some others visit the Wave Country again later in the story.

This chapter had a lot of help from my friend ShadowAI, who was not only my beta for the very final scene on the bridge (Naruto going boom boom) and helped me tighten it up a bit, but also has been a useful source for bouncing ideas off of and helping me refine them into more usable forms. He assisted me in refining Sera and her existence and origins, as well as some other secrets about her. He and another friend are responsible for me coming up with the below Omake, since they have been pressuring me to play/watch Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Hollow Ataraxia for months.

The next story in my cycle that I will be working on is Desert Fox Redux, so if you haven't read the first chapter yet, I recommend you do so. I hope that I can have a chapter up by the end of the weekend, but no guarantees. I need to burn stuff off of my computer so I can replace my Mobo, Core, and Ram with the new goodies I got as X-mas presents from my parents. You know what? Scratch that. I promise that by the end of NEXT weekend I will have a chapter for Desert Fox up. There, that will be much easier to keep.

Jaa ne.

-ZI

* * *

**Legacy of the Planet Omake #1: Fate**

Naruto gazed out over the collection of mismatched mercenaries and criminals, and the rage within him rose once again.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BASTARDS!!!!!!!!" He cried as he leapt into the air, pulling out a scroll and unrolling it into the air. Naruto floated in the air, surrounded by a roiling vortex of red chakra as the scroll finished unrolling.

"UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS!!!"

As the mercenaries of Gatou fell, somewhere in the multiverse a red-clad white-blond man sneezed and felt the undeniable and ultimately confusing urge to sue somebody.

* * *

**Review Responses** – Long time since I updated this, for which I apologize.

Kammari – I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I put a lot of time and energy into completing it to my satisfaction, and even now I wonder if I couldn't have done a little more.

Chm01 – Well, Kakashi let his guard down and wasn't using anywhere near his full power, plus Naruto had a few tricks up his sleeve. Literally.

Moonfal – Here is the awesomeness, my friend. I hope you enjoyed it.

Jaa ne.

-ZI

zerohour20xx – The probes are a good plot device, agreed, but there are major limitations and flaws with all of them, which will become evident as the story progresses further. And the only characters that will appear from other FFs are some of the versions of Summons. I simply prefer the versions of them in some of the other games, and because of how I am explaining summons in the story (later on) I can have them take those appearances. The pairing is Naruto girls, although one is being altered a tad from canon due to age issues. And single girl directly, but the relationship has a few twists and turns and some bumps and quirks. And before anyone asks, no, Sera is not Naruto's first girlfriend nor is she is ultimate love. She is something I have enjoyed developing and she will play an important role in some later events.

-ZI

Warper – Hmm, I think I may have sent you an email telling you who he was going to get with. If I haven't, drop me a line and I'll remind you. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'm sorry that I made Haku a guy, but I personally only like making Haku a girl when it suits the story, and here the Haku being liked Naruto bit was very necessary to the plot and to Naruto's continued development. And no, he is not getting with OCs. Well, not unless Sera *cough*tricks*cough* him into giving her some nookie. Of course, she's being manipulated into it by a third party anyways, if it happens. I won't spoil anything.

-ZI

naruhina-otaku – Heh, there actually is a Cerberus summon if I remember, but no, Ifrit won't appear for some time, and he may not get much story time, depending on how I make use of him.

Gunnslie – Nope. The closest thing to a Soldier showing up is Naruto when he is channeling his full potential. He is literally mixing his own chakra and the Kyuubi's demonic youki, which is like corrupted converted Mako, along with Mako he is channeling from the Lifestream/Nature. Otherwise, nope, no Soldiers, as half the elements needed to create a Soldier are completely absent from the Planet. (aka, Jenova cells)

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

-ZI

OBSERVER01 – Thank you. Hope you enjoyed this one as well.

Ash nazg gimbatul – Why thank you. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter and the fight scenes as well.

*whistles innocently*

Bobboky – Thanks.

Spedclass – Thanks. And sorry the update has been a while, but I am juggling a job, a novel, and numerous other stories.

King Hawke – He's still hoping to impress her of course, but that won't last too much longer. Coming events ultimately drive a wedge between him and her, and before she realizes what she has done she has driven the only boy who truly cared for her out of her life. But that will still be a while in actually getting it written time, unfortunately. There is just so much to happen between now and then.

Loveablevampire – I'm trying to do a Sasuke Naruto friendship thing for now, and perhaps he may be redeemable in the END of the story, but frankly, Sasuke-kun is on the path to get a snake-hickey, if you catch my drift.

Narutokid2k7 – That would be about the time this chapter goes up. ^_^

DarkSyde24 – I know I've already replied to you, and again, Thank you for leaving me a solid review. Criticism is to me the strongest form of flattery, since it means you actually CARED enough to critique my work. As you can see from this chapter, things are picking up and changes are beginning to appear. Thanks to these events and events coming up quickly, he will progress further and faster. Haku's wasted death will be a driving force for him to improve beyond anything he as already achieved, and is part of what drives him to cease hiding his abilities in short order. By the time he fights Neji, he isn't hiding anymore.

Twilightserius – Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Gaul1 – Cool. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

esa his eym Naruto nds in his pockets presenting a falsley , his lower face concealed by bandages and his back towards the Konog


End file.
